From within the Flames
by Split Persona
Summary: Jou is on the run the organization that helped turn him into what he is. He escaped and wants to be free. But they aren't so ready to let im go and he ends up right in the town where everything comes to a front. CANCELLED. SEE PROFILE.
1. Chapter 1 Dreams with the Past

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A/N: Wow! This is our first YUGIOH fic!

JC: We really just stared this today so we probably missed a lot of mistakes. Gomen 'bout that.

Kathrine: The story is probably not very original, but what for YUGIOH hasn't already been done.

JC: Just so you know, there will be YAOI/Shounen Ai, and this is a Joey fic.

Kathrine: We have deemed Joey to be our tortured blonde for YUGIOH seeing as he's pretty much our favorite character and we always torture our favorite characters.

JC: We have to give credit to SSJ Sky for her story '_Into the Sky_' and the author of the story '_Artificial_' for ideas. We forgot her name. SORRY!

Kathrine: This also seems a bit like the movie 'Firestarter', but hey it just turned out that way.

JC: Please give us a chance because we're used to writing Ronin Warriors/Samurai Troopers stories where we torture our _other_ favorite blonde.

Kathrine: We hope you enjoy this and please, don't get on us bout Jou's name. We get too confused by which is his first and which is his last so we just picked how we prefer it. Everyone calls him Jou so that's his first name. You'll see why during the story.

JC: Now without further babble…the disclaimer…

Disclaimer: We do not own YUGIOH!! WHAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! !_!

Warnings: AU, YAOI/Shounen Ai, Dark themes, Angst, Child Abuse, SciFi, Other themes to be determined later.

For all those who don't know the translations:

Jounouchi – Joey 'Puppy' (Both: Love that nickname!! I want to adopt him as my puppy!! ^_^)

Yugi – Yugi (JC: How adorable! I want to adopt him and dress him in little tuxedoes with bow ties!)

Yami – Yami (Kathrine: Sexy, protective and wears leather. *Fans herself to reduce heat in room*)

Bakura – Yami Bakura (Kathrine: Evil and drop dead gorgeous! I love the combination!)

Ryou – Bakura Ryou (JC: Angel and gorgeous! He's too cute! I love his accent!)

Malik – Malik (Kathrine: Gods, he's gorgeous!)

Marik – Yami Malik (Kathrine: Yummy times two with a psycho attitude!! *Drools*)

Anzu – Tea (The dub makes her seem like an baka. She has to have a better personality than that!)

Mai – Mai ( The epitome or girls rule even if she's materialistic!)

Honda – Tristan

Isis – Ishizu (Still confused me why they didn't just leave it Isis)

Shizuka – Serenity

Seto Kaiba – Seto Kaiba (Both: Sexy, reserved, cruel at times, and a soft spot for younger siblings! *Swoons*)

Mokuba – Mokuba (JC: Too adorable for his own good!!!)

Otogi – Duke (We're not sure about his other name at the moment. Kathrine: LOVE HIM!! GREEN EYES!!!)

Pegasus

Gozuborou (We're not sure if this is how to spell his name so someone tell us so we can fix it. We've seen it three different ways and con only remember on, but we know it's wrong.)

A/N: We're done now! ^_^

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From within the Flames

BY JC and Kathrine

Chapter 1

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1991

" What happened Doctor?" the man asked, his face grim and set in a look of cold indifference, but the other in the room knew that rage was hidden beneath it.

" One of the test subject couples died in a car crash, leaving their children orphaned," the older man explained.

" So why come to me?" he asked.

" They have no other relatives, both only children and only living parent of the mother lives in the United States," he pointed out. " They both show signs of having progressing effects from the tests their parents were subjected to and you know that the most like results were to be found in the offspring."

" Your point Doctor?"

The elderly man sighed, " If we do not do something they will be sent to live with their grandmother in America. With them there, their parents part in the experiment will have been all for nothing. We need to find them a home and guardian here in Japan."

" How far are the results?" the man asked, finally becoming interested. He sat up in his chair and placed his hand on his desk in front of him. " Are the results promising?"

" I am not completely sure as of now," he admitted, " but I do know that the young boy's teddy bear caught on fire at the news that his father and mother were both dead. It seems that even at four he understands the difference between life and death."

" What is his name?" the man inquired.

" Jounouchi," the doctor answered.

" What of the girl?" he continued.

" She's is only fourteen months, too young for any results to be apparent," he replied. " Although, if the effects are similar between the two than the future effects are promising."

" So the teddy bear caught on fire?" the man smirked at him at the thought. He had been waiting to hear something from the experiments his organization had run five years before.

" What do you think Crawford?" he asked just as a figure seemed to become clearer in the shadows by the window in the room. The person looked out the window and over the city the building towered over.

" By all means, take them to the Facility," he answered. " They have no real family to miss them save a foreign grandmother and might be useful in the future. By taking them in they become our own. Gozuborou, I believe you can handle them."

" I see," the man at the desk nodded before turning his attention to the elderly man that had brought the issue up. " Doctor, are they here?"

" Yes, they're outside right now," he confirmed.

" Bring them in for me to see," he ordered.

" Yes," he agreed as he turned around on his heel and walked out the electronically opened door. Less than five minutes later, he returned with two small children with him. The boy had sunny blonde hair and eyes the color of light oak. The four-year old held in his arms a little girl that was too young to understand anything that was going on. Her short auburn brown hair was pulled into pigtails and her blue eyes were innocent and calm.

" Jou, this is Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Crawford," the doctor introduced the other two men in the room. " Mr. Kaiba is going to take you and Shizuka in after what happened to your parents."

" Really?" the child was staring at him with wide eyes. " We're not orphans anymore?"

" No Jou," Crawford shook his head as he walked to the small boy and his sister. " Mr. Kaiba is going to adopt you." He smiled at the innocent-looking little boy. He could tell that he was going to be a handsome one when he got older. _Yes, very handsome,_ he smirked as he stared into trusting brown eyes.

" You don't have to worry though," he told him as he brushed silvery white strands of hair behind his ear. " I will be around often and so will Doctor Katsuya so you won't have to be just you two and Gozuborou."

" Ummm…K," the boy smiled. " Mommy told me that angels protect people and help them. Are you angels?"

" No Jou," Crawford chuckled lightly and patted the youth on the head. " We're just normal people who want to help you."

" Good," Jou smiled even brighter.

" Come Jou, it's time for Shizuka's nap," Doctor Katsuya told him. " Babies get upset when they don't get their naps."

" I know, Mommy told me," the child smiled, happy that he knew something an adult did. The door opened once more and the man led the child from the room gratefully. He truly didn't want the child anywhere near the two men they had left behind in the room, but it would be disastrous to send the two children away to the US without any help for the effects that they could be facing. The boy was already showing signs and he knew they would need proper help just like all of the others that were in the experiment. 

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I just hope that they don't harm these two, he thought as he stared down at the happy boy who had cradling his sister carefully in his arms. It was strange to him that the four-year old could even carry the baby for so long. A normal child would have dropped Shizuka more than once or wined to have someone else take her, but not Jounouchi. The boy simply refused to let anyone besides himself, the doctor, and the appointed nanny to even touch her without him being right there. _He is definitely protective for someone so young. I just hope that Kaiba doesn't exploit that. _

*****

" What did you see in them?" Gozuborou asked Crawford after the doctor and the children had gone.

" The boy has definite promise and the girl might be sensitive towards things, but not much else," the longhaired man shrugged. " Although, I could be wrong because the eye isn't normally used that way. But it's undeniable about the boy. He reminds me of the other seven I've seen this year. They all, too, show promise."

" What about the Yin-yang Project?"

" Six of those are just that," Crawford assured him. " It seems to be flawless."

" Good," Kaiba smirked once more. " Now we can begin with Jou. He'll be the perfect guinea pig for the training methods."

" Don't be too hard on the boy," the other man told him. " He'll be something when he gets older, it's quite obvious." He moved a strand of hair once more and a flicker of gold glistened in the fluorescent lighting.

" I don't care as long as what I want is accomplished," his companion growled. " Children are only meant to ruin the world. It is time they did something useful for once."

**__**

Twelve years later…

The fear was eating at him. He didn't know what to do. What would happen if they caught him? He didn't want to become a slave to their organization again. He wanted to be free to choose his own life. They had been chasing him down for three years now. It was at a point that he couldn't even go visit his sister anymore for fear of them realizing he had a living relative left. She was safe at the hospital where they were trying to save her sight and didn't need him ruining everything for her by popping up out of the blue. He knew that she might not even remember him after so many years apart.

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At least if they do catch me, I know she's still safe from them where she is, he sighed. The woods began to clear away and he noticed he was near a street. At the end of the street there was a large building that looked like a school of some kind. _Maybe I can hide there for the night,_ he thought. _They're usually hesitant to destroy public property._ Quickly, he forced himself to use a burst of extra speed to reach the building only t0 find out it was in deed a school.

" Domino High School," he read the sign above the door. " Well, ya just got a new student for a while."

" Check over there!" he heard someone yell.

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Shit! He hurried and touched the knob, feeling it melt beneath his hand instantly. Then he pushed the door open and closed it behind himself. Touching it again, he felt it reform to normal, the lock clicking back into place. _Thanks for the tricks boys,_ he thought sarcastically before rushing down one of the halls. He looked around, but couldn't see a safe place to hide. All the doors seemed locked and he knew that he would have to do something quick. _I might not have enough energy to pull that off again. I'm just too tired._

That's when he saw the storage closet at the end of the hall right before the stairs. _Tomorrow's Saturday,_ he thought. _No one will be here 'til Sunday when the janitors come to fix it up for school on Monday._ He stopped in front of the door and touched the knob, feeling it melt just as the front door had done. It sizzled and any normal person would have been burned, but _he_ was nowhere near normal. The door opened without a sound and he quickly fixed the doorknob before walking into the room.

It was pitch black, but he could see just fine. There were a few brooms, an extra desk or two and filing cabinets for the surplus paper and supplies for the rest of the school year. The room looked big enough to be a small classroom and shut the door, hoping no one had seen or heard him. _Gods, I'm so tired. I haven't had a chance to regain any energy for three days. I'm going to have to find an energy source soon._

He meandered through all of the school supplies and such with ease, scooting himself to the very far back corner of the room. He lowered himself into a sitting position with his knees to his chest, eyes wide and alert. He wouldn't be caught again. He stared at the door from where he sat in the corner of the two walls. Gods, he was so tired! He definitely needed to recharge tomorrow. He didn't even realize that his eyelids were drooping or that sleep had overtaken until he was already in its clutches for the night.

*****

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" Take her away, she's no use to us half blind," the man wearing the dark gray suit ordered the two mean wearing the formal yet more casual clothing.

" At least have her taken to a hospital where they can try to save her eyesight," the other man wearing a long white coat over his blue suit. " She's our responsibility. The drugs are what are taking away her eyesight. I know people who can help her, they've dealt with patients with side effects to the drugs before."

" Then do it, just get her out of here," he turned away and faced the small blonde child that was cradling a younger brunette in his arms as they sat on the ground. " Let go of her Jounouchi."

" No, please don't take her away!" the little boy begged with tears in his eyes. " Please…"

" Quit crying Jounouchi!" the man growled deep in his throat. " You're showing weakness!"

The little girl looked between her brother and the older man with frightened eyes. She didn't understand what was going on, but her brother did. She was only five and her eight-year old brother seemed to understand what was going on a lot more than she did. " I don't want to leave Onii-san," she told him in a teary voice.

" You're not going anywhere," the boy sounded assured and defiant. He wasn't going to let them just take his little sister away. She was all he had left after their parents had died four years before. He could also feel the anger the flame within himself burn brighter. He didn't know where it came from, but the flame had been there for as long as he could remember. It was always there as a source of warmth when he or Shizuka were cold and always seemed more apparent when he felt passionately about something.

" Jounouchi, I am in no mood for your antics today," the man growled again. " Shizuka is leaving, she is useless."

" Stop saying that!" the boy shouted and the man had to back away instantly. The heat in the room had risen and the four men knew why. " Shizu is staying!"

" Calm down Jou," the elderly man in the white coat told him. " You know what happens when you get upset."

" I don't care!" the child shook his head angrily. " He wants to send her away!" It was then the chairs at the table began to smoke and the sizzle before bursting into flames completely.

" Onii-san!" Shizuka cried. " It's happening again!" Jou looked around in confusion. He didn't understand why, but whenever he was upset or scared something would start to burn or just outright burst into flames. He held onto to his sister even more and tried to make the flame go down, only he couldn't. He was too angry that they were trying to take away his sister and leave him all alone.

" Jou, it's all right," the man told him as he kneeled next to them. His hair was gray and his white coat fell around like a trench coat. " You know how Shizu has been having problems with her eyes?"

" Yeah," Jou nodded.

" Well, Gozuborou and I thought it was best to send her to a hospital that would help her keep her sight," he reasoned. " We're not trying to take her away from you."

The flames around the room seemed to calm (Too late to save the furniture) and Jou stared at him thoughtfully. " Really Dr. Katsuya?" he asked. " You're just making Shizu all better?"

The man said nothing for a moment before nodding. " That's right Jou, we're going to make Shizuka all better."

The blonde was reluctant to agree, but knew that Doctor Katsuya wouldn't lie to him this and if he said Shizuka was going to get his eyes fixed then she was. He didn't want to be the reason his sister lost her eyesight. " Okay," he conceded, reluctantly loosening his grip on his sister's smaller form. " You'll take care of her Mr. Katsuya?" he smiled a little when the old man smiled at him in agreement.

" Onii-san?" Shizuka stared at his in confusion.

" It's okay Shizu," he told her. " They're gonna make ya eyes all better. Just go with Dr. Kastu"

" Uh…but…" she didn't know why her brother looked so upset and was letting them take her away.

" Be good Shizu, they're gonna help ya," he told her once more.

" Onii-san, I don't want to go," she told him.

" You have ta so ya can get better," he told her. " Please go, I don' want ya ta go blind."

The little girl seemed hesitant, but slowly agreed. " K…" she nodded and removed herself from her brother's arms. " I'll be good."

" Great," Jou smiled with tears in her eyes. He was mature for the tender age of eight, but he knew he was supposed to be that way. Gozuborou said he was supposed to act like an adult since he could remember, he wasn't supposed to be a child anymore. Shizuka stood up and took the doctor's out-stretched hand and smile on her face.

" Bye Jou, I'll be back soon!" she waved as she was led from the room. " And my eyes will be all better!"

" See ya later Shizu!" he called to her, mimicking her waves because he didn't have the heart to do it on his own. He knew she wasn't coming back, not ever. He had lost his sister. But she was going to get her eyes fixed so that was a good thing he told himself. He was being selfish wanting her to stay with him

" Jounouchi," he heard the familiar angry and coldly calm tone in Gozuborou's voice.

" Hai, Mr. Kaiba?" Jou kept his eyes to the floor.

" You disobeyed me," he stated, his voice getting dangerously low. " You went against my orders directly and told me 'no'."

" I'm sor-" he was prepared for the hand that came out of right field, but didn't try to duck or block it. He wasn't supposed to. He allowed the hits to continue, the pain to continue until he felt that the man had vented out his anger. His knew he was in for it anyway. No one was allowed to go against what Mr. Kaiba said anyway, except for Dr. Katsuya. He had only brought in on himself.

The fists and hands stopped and he was left lying on the floor with a busted lip and bruises quickly becoming apparent on his pale skin. " I believe you need further training in the Water Room," he stated as he calmed his breath and fixed his suit. " That will teach you to follow orders like a good little puppy." 

Jou nodded submissively and stood up, knowing that was his cue to leave the room. And he knew he couldn't escape his punishment either. The guards always reported where he was anyway. He left the room slowly, holding his stomach from the punches he'd received there. 

He practically limped out of the room and saw bright blue eyes staring at him from behind a barely opened door. Honey eyes just stared at eyes that seemed so much like his own. They held the same sense of loss that his own did along with a look of concern that seemed to be under bangs of dark brown. The eyes widened before the door shut quietly yet quickly and he knew why.

" Why are you still out here?" Gozuborou demanded to know.

" No reason sir," he answered respectfully and continued to limp slowly down the hall and didn't even look and the door as he passed it.

*****

He awoke without any pain from staying in his position for so long, but a depressed state of mind. He hated when he had dreams. They were always sad and never of the good times in his life. _At least this was one of the lighter ones,_ he told himself. He was just grateful in wasn't anything more violent or harsher. He stood up and stretched, but still didn't feel any pain. He was very flexible and he knew it.

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Now, lets see what this place is all about, he decided and he walked through the room that was now illuminated by the light coming in from the window in the door. Unfortunately (or was that fortunately), the window was the type that you couldn't see anything but shadows in. Slowly he placed his hand on the door and was about to melt it when he realized that it locked from the inside.

" Oh," he smiled stupidly as he turned the locked as quietly as he could. Slowly he opened the door slightly and looked around the hall. From what he could tell no one was anywhere to be seen and that allowed him to sigh to himself in relief. They hadn't come in the school, just like he had expected. They didn't want people to know what they were up to.

The hall was indeed empty when he stepped out into it and he couldn't hear anyone or anything. He took in his surroundings as he walked around and smirked. The school didn't seem to be very big up close and was very clean. The halls reminded him of the Facility he'd been in before escaping, only with more life because of the posters and other items on the walls. 

There were drawings and paintings of things that seemed like animated characters that the students had done for art class. One drawing was of very well drawn and delicate-looking roses in a silver vase, another was of a magician of sorts wearing purple robes and carrying a golden staff. The last one he saw in the corridor was a vibrantly painted portrait of a swordsman, his large sword shining with flames course out of it like a dragon and clothing of blue, orange, and red. Looking at the title of the painting he found it was called, '_Duel Monster: Flame Swordsman._'

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What's a Duel Monster? Jou wondered, having not idea what it was talking about. Even so, he found the painting to be very alluring to where he couldn't take his eyes off of it. The way the flames spiraled around the blade of the sword and the around the swordsman himself seemed realistic and fantasy-like at the same time. Just staring at them he could feel the flame within himself react.

He reached out to touch the portrait, to connect his flame with that of the inanimate. But then he stopped. It seemed strange to want to merge one's self with a painting. He shook his head at his foolish thoughts and turned away. He wouldn't act like an idiot, even if he was all by himself. That's when he heard a loud cry echo though the empty hall from down another close by.

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Who else could be here?! He thought frantically. The sound of metal crashing to the floor was heard and he took of in a sprint without a second thought. Someone was being hurt and he had to help them no matter what. _They could be in trouble because They are looking around here for me!_

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A/N: How was that? We hope yall liked it.

Kathrine: I know some of you are probably confused but we can't really let out anything else until the next chapter.

JC: Please don't expect one soon because we are way behind on most our RW stories. This was just kind of a teaser.

Kathrine: We didn't state the pairings before because we usually don't put out the pairings. But I guess it's a kinda YUGIOH tradition so the main pairing is kinda there. SetoxJou. Then there's B/R, Y/Y, M/M, M/A, H/O, M/S (if it comes to that), and ???/Jou. Ooh, we're not telling about this one yet. ^_^

JC: Please review! (Gives big Jounouchi puppy dog eyes.)


	2. Chapter 2 Meetings

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A/N: Here's the next chapter!

Kathrine: We don't know how much of this story yall want so we decided to ask.

JC: Do you want faster updates or longer chapters? I mean, our chapters aren't very long to begin with so we want to know if you want them shorter so we can update faster.

Kathrine: We'd loved to know but until then just enjoy the story.

JC: In this we meet everyone else pretty much and find out how Jou 'recharges'. ^_^

Kathrine: We finally got YUGIOH cards!! YAY!!

JC: Yeah, our friends gave them to us. (Hugs cards to her chest.)

Kathrine: Okay, now to the story.

Disclaimer: Do not own YUGIOH! Even though we want to.

Warning: Angst, YAOI/Shounen Ai, Dark themes, Beating up on poor Yugi. (Oh well.) DO NOT FLAME!!! Kathrine will smite thee for it. Constructional Criticism in accepted.

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From within the Flames

BY JC and Kathrine

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Chapter 2

" Well what should we work on today?" the small tri-color-haired asked. " We've already studied everything for the Chemistry final on Tuesday so we need to work on Algebra and Ancient World History." The white-haired boy he was talking to only nodded in agreement as he got out their books for that morning. It was noon and they had just started the meeting for their school club, 'Reach for the Stars'. It was basically a group that tutored students at the school on Saturdays and during the week so that they could raise their grades. Currently, there were only seven members, three of which were there because of mandatory school punishment.

" I still don't see why _we're_ here anyway, Ryou," another white-haired boy growled, him being one of said three. " They know we aren't going to do anything here. There's not even a teacher to watch us."

" Bakura," the other sighed. " If you would do your work and not get in trouble on a daily basis than you wouldn't be here." His chocolate brown eyes stared into the other's identical depths, but he merely turned his head away. Ryou's eyes lowered and his finished pulling his books out of his bag.

" Can we just get out of here?" a boy with light blonde hair yawned before sitting up in his chair. " We only have to show up and listen to you four, not like we have to get into conversations."

" Shut up, Marik," warned another boy who looked almost identical to the first tri-color-haired student, save his crimson eyes and self-assured attitude. " We try to help you so that Assistant Principal Keiromi will let you three off of punishment. That doesn't give you the right to act like a jerk."

" Oh, the great Pharaoh Yami has spoken," Bakura snickered. " We should all bow down to him."

" Don't call me that," the boy growled. He had been calling the boy that name since elementary school when Marik had first moved to their town from Egypt and said he acted like one of their ancient kings, or a Pharaoh.

" I knew this was a bad idea for the assistant principal to sign them up for this as punishment," a brunette girl sighed. " They will never get along and that only causes problems for us."

" But I'm not causing problems," a blonde boy looking identical to Marik pointed out, a feigned smile of innocence on his face. He had always managed to make the girl feel uneasy because she knew that behind that smile was an insane teenager who enjoyed causing people pain.

" That's because you do your schoolwork and get good grades," Marik pointed out.

" Yeah Malik, we all know why you agreed to join," Bakura smirked.

" Your point?" the blonde questioned as he walked behind Marik and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, nibbling on his ear. The blonde groaned and leaned back so that the other boy could move on to his neck.

" Now is not the time for that," the girl told them. " We have to work or else you three will just get expelled."

" Anzu the Goody-goody," Bakura rolled his eyes. " Like I care if I get expelled or not."

" I bet your mother would," the brunette frowned. The white-haired boy glared at her then. It was common knowledge that his mother was ill and in the hospital with a weak heart. She was kind and tried to teach her son to be the same way since his father had been killed in the line of duty as a police officer. Before then Bakura had been a good student with excelling grades, but he stopped caring after his parent's death.

" That weak woman cares too much," he muttered under his breath. To him, it was his father's weakness that had killed him and his mother's that had her trapped in a hospital bed. _I am not weak,_ he told himself and then glanced at Ryou as he and Yami looked over what needed to be done. _He **is** weak, he is gentle and cares too much. Just like them, my parents. He shouldn't be so weak._

" We don't have enough paper, Yugi," Yami looked to his smaller, more innocent looking counterpart. They usually didn't seeing as Marik and Bakura never even brought their own books, let alone paper.

" I'll just go get some from the Saturday school teacher," he shrugged. Then he looked between Bakura, Marik (who was still making out with Malik), and Yami. " Please don't try and kill each other," he begged. With that he walked out of the room and down the hall. He didn't even notice the look in Yami's eyes as he left.

The hallway was silent and he walked down the many identical halls to Room 114. It was the first Saturday of the month, which happened to be June, which meant that Sensei Hakoi would be the teacher that held the detentions. Saturday school was only detentions for students who never stayed for after school or couldn't. Most were the former instead of the latter. He just hoped that the teacher was in the room because he didn't want to be left alone with any of the students in that room, mainly because he wasn't even half their size. He was indeed the smallest sixteen year-old in Japan, he was sure of it.

The door was closed and everything was silent so he guessed that Mr. Hakoi was there to keep them in line. He knocked on the door, but no answer came so he knocked again. " Hello Sensei Hakoi?" Yugi called. " It's me Yugi Motou, I needed to borrow some paper." That's when the door opened and dark blue eyes glared down on him from behind black shades with a vicious smirk as company.

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It's Keith! His mind raced and he couldn't think of what to do. Keith had been the one that had bullied and beaten him for all of his freshman year and then that year as well until Anzu found out and told the principal. The American exchange student had been sentenced to Saturday school for the rest of the year and community service because Yugi had not been the only student he'd been beating up on.

" Hello Runt," the blonde greeted him. " I thought that was you squeakin' out here." He stepped out of the room and towered over the smaller boy.

" Wh-where's Mr. H-Hakoi?" he asked in a small, scared voice. Keith has sworn he would get revenge on Yugi for ruining his weekends when he hadn't actually done anything, save telling Anzu.

" Got sick, the substitute hasn't shown up yet," Keith answer with a dark chuckle. " Since I'm the only one here they weren't too worried."

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He's the only one?! Yugi knew then that he was in trouble. He wasn't even prepared for the right hook that connected with his stomach and sent him flying across the corridor and into the wall. He let out a loud cry of fear and pain, clutching his abdomen in an attempted to make the hurt go away.

" You're still a weak little runt," Keith laughed. " You can't even take a hit." He picked up the boy and through him through the air, causing him to land on a desk left in the hall. On impact the desk fell over and Yugi's head collided with the hard-tiled floor. He let out another cry of pain, and tried to stop the world from spinning around him. He stared up with blurred vision and thought he saw an unfamiliar crop of blonde hair and honey brown eyes just as he lost consciousness.

*****

Jounouchi rushed down the many different halls, using his genetically altered sense of smell and hearing to lead him to where the cries he'd heard had come from. _Oh Gods, I hope it's not Them!_ he prayed. He didn't want to anyone to know he was there in the school and yet knew he couldn't let someone be injured on account of him. _I hope whoever it is, is all right._

His senses led him to a hallway just as he saw a boy being thrown into a desk, his head making a sickening thud sound as the desk fell over and his head hit the floor. _Oh no!_ his eyes widened, but then they cut into a glare as he let out a low growl. He stepped into the hall and could see another blonde laughing at the hurt boy on the floor. He looked surprised to see him, but his attention had turned to the boy he stood next to.

Jou kneeled down next to the small boy and looked at him in confusion. He was so small, he could have only been twelve at the most and his hair was dyed the strangest combination of colors, bangs being blonde and the tips of his black hair a deep red. The boy's glazed violet eyes stared at him for a moment before they closed and the boy's entire body went limp. He checked and could see a small trickle of blood coming the back of the boy's head.

" Who the hell are you?" the other blonde demanded to know. Jou glared at him with hate in his eyes. _How dare he picked on this little kid?!_ He thought of his little sister Shizuka and what he would have done to anyone that had tried to hurt her. He scooped the small child up in his arms and stood without any difficulty.

" Hey, Blondie, what is up with you?!" the boy shouted at him.

" You shouldn't have hurt him," Jou told him with a snarled on his lips. " He is only a child."

" So you're a friend of the Runt's?" he asked. " No wonder why you're weird." He then raised his hands in fists. " And any friend of the Runt's needs to get his ass kicked." He stood in a stance, his posture showing he wanted to fight, but Jou didn't move. He just continued to hold the boy and stare at him.

" What? Are you brain dead too?" Keith egged him on.

" You want to fight me?" Jou asked. " Are you sure you want to lose?"

" Lose my ass, c'mon!" Keith shouted. Jou merely shrugged and lay Yugi down on the ground. He then turned back to Keith and smirked at him, raising his hand. The bully's eyes widened when a small flame flickered to life in his palm.

" What the Hell-?!" Keith began to back away.

" Don't go," Jou told him with a glint in his eyes. He knew he was low on energy and needed to collect some. _He'll be enough for now,_ he told himself. That's when the flame grew larger and seemed to fly from his hand, racing towards its target.

Keith was paralyzed in confusion and fear. The fire swarmed around him like a mythical dragon, keep him in place. Then he felt very tired all of a sudden. It was as if he didn't have enough energy to stay awake any longer. His eyelids drooped and he stared at Jou in disbelief.

" Wh-what d-did you do to me?" he asked just as the fire unraveled from around him, allowing him to collapse to the floor. The flame merely went right back to Jou's hand feeding him the energy it had taken from Keith so he could replenish his own. The blonde felt more awake and strengthen because of the recharging. He took in a deep breath of air and smiled as the opposing blonde falling into a deep sleep.

" That's much bett-" Jou started but was halted by a scream from down the hall.

" YUGI!" he turned around and stared at six confused faces. The one that had screamed was the girl of the girl with green eyes.

" Who are you and what have you done?" the one in front of the others demanded to know. To Jou's surprise he looked practically identical to the boy he have just saved, if only a bit taller and having crimson eyes instead of violet. _Must be his older brother,_ Jou guessed. He watched as the expression of three of their faces turned to glares and he knew what they were thinking.

" Nani? You think I hurt the little kid?!" the blonde wasn't too surprised. Everything did look really suspicious.

" And Keith," the girl pointed out.

" Wait a minute! This guy attacked the kid and I was just trying to help!" Jou insisted. " Yeah I hurt the big jackass right there, but not the kid." The boy he believed to be Yugi chose that time to let out a weak, pain-filled moan. His 'brother' quickly rushed to his side and checked his over.

" His bleeding from his head, he must have hit something hard," he assessed carefully. " We have to get him to the hospital and fast."

" We can take my car," Malik offered. He wasn't known for being the nicest (or sanest) person in school, but he did know that the smaller boy needed help. _Besides,_ he thought with a mental pout. _I'm not the one that caused his pain._

" Arigato," Ryou thanked him as Yami pulled Yugi into his arms. 

" What about these two?" Bakura motioned to Keith who was unconscious on the floor and Jou who was just watching them.

" Who are you?" Anzu asked. " I haven't seen you around the school before and it's way too late for new students." It was only a week until school let out.

" Well…" Jou knew he had to think fast. " I'm Jounouchi Katsuya. My school let out just last week and I came up here to visit with my dad. I was curious as to how your school looked because I'm suppose to transfer to here next year and saw the door was open so I came in. That's when I heard someone cry out and came to see what happened."

" Just at the right place at the right time, huh?" Marik gave him a doubtful look.

" Yeah, I guess," Jou nodded, seeing as that was pretty much the truth.

" Thank you for helping Yugi," Ryou told him. " C'mon, we have to get Yugi some help." Malik shrugged and walked a head of him leading them down the hall so that he could take them to his car. Jou watched them leave and sighed, noticing that two of them hadn't gone with the others.

" What?" he asked.

" I know you're lying," Marik told him. " You're hiding something and I like finding out secrets."

" Eh?" Jou sweat-dropped. He just shook his head again. " Yall have it all wrong. I wasn't lying about just showing up." _At least not completely,_ he thought. _Seeing as I just showed up last night while being on the run for my life._

" Whatever," Bakura rolled his eyes, showing he didn't believe him.

" What about him?" Jou pointed to Keith.

" We'll deal with him," the white-haired boy smiled and Jou felt a chill go up his spine. He didn't know what it was about these two, but they creeped him out. And that was saying a lot with all of the things he had done and witnessed in his life. He began to back away and the turned around.

" Since you have this under control I better be going," Jou told them with a nervous laugh.

" Excuse me?" Bakura raised a curious brow. " I did say '_We'll_ deal with this,' didn't I? That means _you_ as well, seeing as you are the one that knocked him out."

" Uh…Okay," Jou gave in. " What should we do, I mean, he said that a substitute teacher was comin' to watch him."

" Then we put him back," Marik explained. " It's so simple." 

Jou didn't know how to explain that the blonde would be unconscious for another four hours at the least. He gave an indifferent shrug and said, " Whatever." He kneeled next to Keith and put one of his arms behind his neck and stood, the dead-weighted body hanging limply. Bakura snorted in disgust before taking up his other arm and doing the same. Together they carried the heavy blonde back into the classroom and sat him down at one of the desks. Marik couldn't help but laugh as he watched Keith's head bob for a moment before falling onto the desk with a low thud.

" See, no problem, can I go now?" Jou asked, not wanting to be around the psychotic-looking duo any longer.

" But we were just starting to get to know each other," Marik mock pouted with a mischievous glint in his eyes. " Why don't you stay around a little longer?"

" I really need to go," Jou told him as he backed towards the door. " My dad's probably worried by now. Bye!" With that he quickly rushed from the room, leaving the two students alone with the other, unconscious, blonde.

" I think we scared him away 'Kura," Marik sighed.

" With how you were acting, he probably thought you were a cannibal that wanted to eat him," the nearly albino boy snickered.

" He's hiding something," the boy repeated. "I can feel it. I know it's something big as well. I can't wait to find out what it is."

" You're not going to let this drop are you?" Bakura sighed and shook his head.

" Nope, he's the perfect prey," Marik pointed out as they walked out of the room. " He's new in town, is staying with is father so his parents must be divorced, and is hiding a secret. I definitely am going to enjoy this vacation."

" Good for you, ya psycho," Bakura chuckled.

" Like you don't have your own little 'prey' for the summer," his companion smirked knowingly.

" And your point is?" he asked. " At least I don't have a insanely possessive and jealous boyfriend to deal with."

" Malik will help me," Marik shrugged. " He always says we don't spend enough time doing things together."

" Whatever you say," the white-haired boy shrugged as they exited the school. " At least we don't have to have that stupid club meeting anymore."

******

" You're friend is suffering from a concussion and will need to rest for a while," the doctor explained. " He will be just fine so don't worry."

" Thank you Ma'am," Anzu smiled at the lady before turning back to Yami, who had been sitting in the same chair for the past two hours with a concerned look in his eyes. " See I told you everything would be fine and not to worry."

" He should be able to go home tomorrow after some overnight observations," the doctor pointed out. " If you want you may go see him since he's awake. He's in room 23."

" Arigato," Anzu thanked her just before she left to tend to her other patients.

" Come on," Ryou stood and then turned to look at Malik.

" My good duty for the year is done," the blonde told them. " I'm going back to find Marik." The others sighed, knowing that when his mind set on the other blonde there wasn't a tank that could derail him. They all just left him to himself and walked down the hall, searching each door until they came to one the door that said, _23_ on its plate. Yami opened the door and walked in without hesitation.

Inside the room they found Yugi sitting up in bed with a bandage around his head. He turned towards them when the door open and smiled brightly. " Hey guys!" he greeted them with a wave, but stopped with a slight wince. All the quick movements had caused him to become dizzy. Yami smiled warmly at him before sitting in the chair next to the bed.

" The doctor said you can go home tomorrow," Anzu told the small boy. " She just wants to keep you overnight for observations."

" Fine," he shrugged. " Did anyone call my Grandpa?"

" I tried but I think he already left for his trip to Cairo little one," Yami explained.

" Oh, it all right, just didn't want him worrying about me," the boy seemed fine about it. " So what happened to Keith?"

" That's the strangest thing," Ryou explained. " This blonde showed up and said he beat Keith after he attacked you."

" Blonde?' Yugi's eyes widened. " Then I wasn't seeing things!"

" Nani?" Yami questioned.

" Right before I fell asleep I thought I saw someone with blonde hair and light brown eyes," he replied. " I thought I just dreamt it."

" Well, he was real and his name is Jounouchi," Anzu told him. " He said he was just there to look at the school, but heard you cry out."

" Yeah," Yugi sighed and looked down " Keith was really mad at me. He said that he was going to get me for him getting Saturday school for the past four months."

" I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you," Yami apologized.

" Hey, we can't all be in two places at once," Yugi assured him. " You didn't know the teacher wouldn't be there. Everything's fine now." He patted the older looking version of himself on the hand and smiled. " So what happened to the boy, Jounouchi?"

" Oh man!" Anzu cried. " We left him there with Marik and Bakura!"

" From how out cold Keith seemed, I think he can take care of himself," Ryou spoke. " He probably left right after we did anyway."

" Guess your right," Anzu agreed. 

Yugi smiled again and then yawned, " Gods, I'm tired. I guess it's the painkillers. If you three don't mind I think I'm gonna take a nap."

" Go ahead," Yami told him as he watched the boy lay his head back on the fluffy pillows. He stood up and motioned to the other two to leave Yugi be. They nodded to him and followed him out of the room, letting the smaller get some rest.

*****

" Have you found him, yet?" the man asked, moving a piece of silvery-white hair from in front of his face.

" Not exactly…" the man before him started, looking more than just slightly nervous.

" What does that mean?" a single brown eye cut into a suspicious glare.

" We don't have him in custody, Mr. Crawford," the man explained quickly, " but we know where he is hiding." 

" And where might that be?" he raised a silver eyebrow.

" Here in Domino City," the man answered.

Crawford's eye widened and then his lips curled into a wicked smile. " I see," he said. " Well you may go, but keep searching. Jounouchi must be found."

" Hai sir," the man bowed before leaving his employer to his own thoughts.

" Well Jounouchi, it seems you've stumbled right into the middle of what you wanted to escape," he whispered. " You thought you could be free after our dear Gozubouro's parting, but I'll just have to teach you how very wrong that assumption was." He let out a small chuckle and turned around to look at the city just as night fell over its citizens. " Yes, you'll see my dear Jounouchi, you'll see."

****

A/N: There ya go. Hope yall liked it!

JC: We think it came out okay.

Kathrine: We know there wasn't any Seto in this chapter, but don't worry. We'll be seeing him very, _very_ soon. This was just to get the plot going.

JC: Thanks for the reviews from CH 1! We were amazed to find that we got 11 on FFnet for just the first chapter. That's never happened before.

Kathrine: Not even with our one-shots.

JC: Now please review again! Oh and please be patient with updates, we have three other stories we're working on right now.


	3. Chapter 3 Bigger Problems and More Quest...

****

A/N: We really must like you all! We just spent the past three hours writing on another story and now decided to start on this for you. And it's 4:30 in the morning!!

Kathrine: You're just not a regular night owl. I could have wrote this on my own.

JC: Over my dead persona! Who knows what you would have done to Jou!

Kathrine: Guess you haven't read my part yet.

JC: What?

Kathrine: Oh you'll see. (Grins) Now, we decided not to change Gozuborou's name. We will only be using it as past reference anyway and we don't want to confuse ourselves because that's what we think of whenever we think of him.

JC: Hey, at least we didn't call him Nokirgo or something way off base.

Kathrine: Now, we hope yall enjoy this. You finally get Kaiba.

JC: We would also like to thank all of our reviewers because seeing as this is our first fic for YUGIOH we like to hear what people say about.

Kathrine: Yeah, and we are definitely trying to better our editing skills.

JC: I know we suck at it because we don't usually don't do it.

Kathrine: Now enjoy!

Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN YUGIOH!! *_! Don't own any affiliate to Firestarter either. Believe us, it just came out that way! 

Warnings: YAOI/Shounen Ai, Dark themes, Implied NCS, Attempted NCS, Character Death. (ONLY A OC!!)

__

From within the Flames

By Kathrine and JC

****

Chapter 3 – Bigger Problems and More Questions

Jounouchi was very tired. He had run from the school that afternoon as fast as he could and hadn't looked back. Two boys, Bakura and Marik, had left him feeling nervous and wary, especially the deranged blonde, Marik. He seemed to be very interested in him for no apparent reason. _He has to be one of those people that picks out a person for no reason and then makes their life miserable,_ he had thought at one point of day while dwelling on it.

After fleeing from his newly acquired 'admirer', the blonde had decided to take a tour of the city. He spent eight hours sightseeing and looking about seeing as he hadn't been outside of the Facility since he was four years old. It was only three years before that he had escaped into the 'real world' for freedom so he moved from place to place and he loved to spend time just looking around at the world he'd been stolen from. There was a place he had learned over the three years of freedom was called a strip mall where people usually went to by things and most people his age spent their time. He even had found a few others places he thought to be 'hang-outs' for people his age, teenagers just like him.

__

No, he thought sadly._ Not like me. Everyone else like me is gone._ He knew very well about the experiment that his parents had taken part in, willing test subjects for what they believed to be a government project. But they hadn't known that it was truly a private organization that had paid the government not to prosecute them. Yes, money a very powerful thing that could control even the most powerful of men.

There had been six families that had been subjected to the 'treatment' with a special drug that was suppose to make the mothers more fertile and would make pregnancies and giving birth less painful and wearing on the couples who used it. They thought they would be helping others like themselves. They didn't know how wrong they were. In the end, every single one of the families would suffer.

The child would be born without problems and as smoothly as was told to them, but in five years at the earliest things would happen. The child would show signs of disease or illness that was fatal or crippling and the parents only had one hospital to turn to that could help them. The doctors had special knowledge and expedients to help the families, courtesy of Doctor Katsuya. They had medicine to counteract side effects of the experimental drug and they would be like never having anything wrong with them in the first place.

Even Jou's poor sister Shizuka was suffering because of the drugs. They were what were taking away her eyesight and the antidote medication might not even have worked on her because she had successful results as well. She could feel things about people, such as emotions and even see what was true in their souls. _But the medication doesn't do any good for people who have the successful results,_ he thought sourly. He was thankful for the current updates he'd been getting on his sister until four days before he had run away, right before…

__

Gods, Doc, why did you have to be so nice to me? he wondered. _If you had only done your job and nothing else then Pegasus wouldn't have…_ Shaking off the nearing of old memories, Jou looked down to the ground and frowned at the broken and worn sidewalk. His traveling had brought him to the darker and more torn looking side of the town of Domino. He could tell that this was where the poorer and less fortunate of the people lived, along with most of the darker people as well.

__

THEY would look for me around here, he thought with a shudder at the chilly late spring wind. It was just a little past dark now and he had to quickly find a place to seek refuge for the night. _Maybe I'll go back to the school, at least there I will be warm and safe for a while._ That's when he remembered the boy, Yugi, from that morning. _I hope he's all right and his friends are with him._

Friends. They were something that Jou had never been able to have, except his littler sister before she was taken away from him. He was too little to have friends and of what small amount he could remember about his mother had her being very over protective. Then she and his father died and it had been only him and Shizuka at the Facility when it came to children. The only other person he could call a friend was Doctor Katsuya and Jou no longer had him either. And it was his own entire fault that the only true father figure that he had while growing up was gone.

His sudden bout of guilt was halted by a sense of danger. He looked up and looked about him, not sure where the strange uneasy had come from. He only got this feeling when THEY were around. _Gods, have they founds me?_ his heart started to race. Taking a quick glance at his surroundings, he noticed that he had walked onto a long street that seemed to separate the more profound and 'cleaner' side of town from its darker counterpart.

At the end of the street was what seemed to be a large park. _I might be able to hide out there for a while,_ he thought instantly as he unnoticeably picked up his pace. He couldn't act like he had seen or heard Them for then They would not waste time following him and would just try to capture him. But the sense seemed to grow, as if warning him. The flame within him was very alert and it told him to get away and fast.

So he did. He ran down the street, not turning back or even attempting to see what was causing his irrational fear. The flame was more than just for his emotions and had always warned him of danger, ever since… _NOT NOW!_ he yelled at himself. He didn't need to think about THAT when he was already running for his life. As a matter of fact, he didn't need to EVER think about that.

He crossed the street, barely missing being hit by a car. The driver honked angrily and yelled obscene comments at him, but he wasn't listening. He ran into the green covering of the park and was unaware of the two pairs of pale violet eyes that were watching him.

*****

" Do you think he knew we were here?" Malik asked. " He sure ran away really fast."

" Nah," Marik shook his head in denial. " He didn't look back here and we didn't make any sounds." They had been following the illusive blonde since they had spotted him at the strip mall around five that afternoon and were surprised to find him spending his day just walking around doing nothing. He wasn't looking for anyone, but did seem to be watching out every once and a while as if someone was to pop out from around corner at any moment.

" He is afraid of something," Malik assessed. " He wouldn't be so uneasy or alert otherwise. The question is, what?" Then he gave a suspicious eye to his lover. " Why do you want to follow him around anyway? I hope your not trying to _do_ anything."

" No!" Marik shook his head instantly. He hated it when Malik got that possessive look in his eyes. He was in one of his moods again. Not even he got as out of hand as his twin-like love when he thought he cheating or something and he was in one of his possessive moods. " He's just the most recent mystery that this town as had in quite some time and I am determined to figure it out."

" Well detective," Malik cut his eyes as lifted a knife that was suddenly in his hand so that Marik could see it. " It better only be that." He then turned down the street. " My sister's gone for a week, visiting an old friend in Egypt. You can spend the night."

Marik sighed. " I sometimes wonder who's supposed to be the darker out of us," he whispered before following after him with a smirk on his lips. " But then again he _does_ get really 'creative' when he's like this."

*****

Jou wasn't even panting when he stopped by a large tree in a secluded area of the park, but his heart was racing. He didn't know whether or not They had followed him. He leaned against the tree and sighed, the flame was gone now, he was safe. _I'm probably just being paranoid about everything,_ he told himself. _It was probably a false alarm anyway._ But it was then that he felt his flame burning brightly once again and a hand touched his shoulder.

He didn't have time to react before he was shoved up against the tree he had been leaning against and somewhat glazed dark eyes smirked at him. The person grasping his arms so tightly was at least seven inches taller that his 6-foot frame and outweighed him by sixty pounds or more. " Hey there," he grinned stupidly. " I've never seen you around here before."

Jou was frozen. He could smell the alcohol on the man's breath and could see the gleam of lust that accompanied his obvious drunkenness. The flame was burning, trying to get out of the box he encased it in after so many years of learning how to control it. But he could feel the mental box crumbling as his fear increased. He had a pretty good idea what this man wanted from him and it made his stomach churn.

" L-let me go," Jou told him. " Just let go of me."

" But I jus' wanted get ta know ya better," the man tightened his hold of Jou's arms. The boy knew how to fight, but at that moment he was too afraid to even move. This wasn't happening, not this, not THIS. It was too familiar for his liking, to much like when…

" Let me go, gods, let me go," Jou almost begged. The man's hand was moving from his arm, sliding up to his shoulder and then his cheek.

" You have pretty eyes," the man purred into his ear as the rough, callused hand stroked a sweaty cheek. Jou was listening to words, but not hearing him say them. They replayed from a memory long ago, a memory that should have remained buried. 

__

/ Such pretty eyes Jounouchi…/

The blonde closed his eyes in order fight back against the onslaught. The flame was fighting, begging to be released, begging to fight back against the foul person touching Jou. Any longer and the blonde wouldn't be able to stop it, he wasn't sure he wanted to. " You smell like cinnamon," the man told him.

__

/ …Tasty, spicy cinnamon…/ That damnable scent. He couldn't get rid of it. No matter how many days he didn't bathe or how many hours he would spend trying to scrub it off. The scent was chemically fused with his skin, courtesy of his the one he feared more than anything or anyone else in the world. And now the scent was attracting the same attention as before, the kind he didn't want.

" Let me go," the low whimpered plea escaped his throat and the man heard. He blinked stupidly for a moment before smirking again. 

" You sound like a scared puppy," he chuckled. 

__

/ Keep crying my puppy…it's all right pup…look so well in pain, my Jou-pup…/

He snapped and the fire broke loose. A burst a strength allowed him to force the man away with a shove as he screamed, " LET ME GO!!"

The man stared in shock as flames burst from the boy's hands and hit the ground. The flames surrounded him, running around him in circles before attacking him from different sides, flowing up his legs as if alive. He screamed out his pain at the agony of his skin burning, the flames sinking past his clothing to the flesh beneath. It ate him as if it was a real creature, taking its time until the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. He hadn't even realized he was on the ground until he was rolling around screaming.

" STOP IT! HELP ME!!" No one came. No one wanted to know what was going on or wanted to get involved. His eyes locked with those of the blonde he had approached, brown eyes wide with horror. He slid to the ground at the tree's trunk and just watched as the fire devoured his whole.

Jou was scared shitless. The fire had never come out so violently or seemed so bloodthirsty before. He was drained from the force of releasing it and didn't even have the power to call it back. All he could do was watch as the fire that was his inner soul's true form burned the drunken man that had attacked him until there was nothing but a charred form left. He couldn't even recognize it anymore. He could tell the flames were pleased with their work as they slithered back across the ground and into his hands from whence they came.

He was breathing deeply from exhaustion, having barely any strength left. He shakily stood, using the tree to help him back to his feet. " Gods…" he whispered as he continued to stare at the form that had been a human being only a minute or so before.

" What have you done?" a cold yet amazed voice asked from out of nowhere. Jou's eyes widened in fear as his snapped to where the voice had come from. On the barely seem sidewalk by large rosebushes was a boy would seemed to be his own age. He had brown hair and strangely familiar blue eyes that held an amazed though still calculating look.

*****

He had seen the blonde boy run by him with amazing speed from where he sat on the park bench. He had been typing, working on his latest project for his company. He didn't care what was going on around him. But he couldn't deny that he'd seen fear written on the boy's face. _Not my problem,_ he told himself. _I don't have to waste my time the pathetic people in this town._ So he continued on with his work.

He liked to be in the park at night. When stress became to much at the office he would merely leave early and go to the park to work. It was fortunate that it a Saturday because he knew that his younger brother, Mokuba, would be sleeping over at his friend's house. Most people would be concerned with that seeing as his friend was a girl, but they had been best friends for almost seven years so he wasn't worried. The two were just too innocent at thirteen for anything to happen.

__

Innocence, he thought. _I can't even remember when I lost mine. _Closing off the thought before it became anything more, he turned his eyes back to the laptop in his… well, his lap. **(A/N: *Giggles for no apparent reason*)** He still had to finish his diagrams for his new game disk. It was for the new card game, _Duel Monsters_, so that the players, or duelists, could have a more realistic duel. _This is too easy,_ he thought. _Creating things to sell to pathetic kids is all that I do with my life besides run a company and take care f Mokuba. Gods, you'd think that life would have more to it._

" LET ME GO!!" The scream rang out in the night air and the brunette turned his head immediately. _What the hell…?_ Nothing ever happened in the park. Who would dare ruin the serenity of his sanctuary? He closed his laptop and got up, curious as what had happened. It had sounded like someone who was very afraid. _That boy…_he thought before walking down the path in the direction that the boy had taken.

Only half a minute later another voice rang out, screaming in pain, " STOP IT!! HELP ME!!" This time the voice sounded different, much older and in complete agony. Now he was definitely curious as to what was going on. His need to know caused him to pick up his speed. He found himself on the side of the rosebushes that led to the oak grove in the park. It was really nothing more that six or eight oak trees cluttered together.

Moving around the bushes slowly, he could hear cries of pain and despair getting lower and the disgusting smell of something alive burning was very distinct in the air. He could only wondered what it could be. His eyes finally moved past the leaves and roses, allowing him to see what was going on. What he saw shocked him.

It was a man, or what had been a man, rolling about on the ground, engulfed in flames, before coming to a complete halt. It was obvious that the man was dead. But was got him was that the burnt form was facing towards one of the oak trees where a young boy sat looking completely terrified. He recognized him as the boy from before and then quickly turned his eyes back to the charred corpse. The flames that it was trapped in had moved. It seemed to separate into two different trails of fire that slithered away from its victim and towards the boy.

__

Gods, is it going to attack him as well? He wondered in shock. But instead of attacking the boy, the flames merely seeped into his hands that were lying somewhat limply at his sides. _Nani?!_ The boy was breathing deeply, as if drained of energy and stood on wobbly legs that looked as if they were about to collapse beneath him. He turned back to look at the form that had been turned to cinders and whispered, " Gods…"

The brunette couldn't help but ask, " What have you done?" the blonde turned to him in fear and shock, honey eyes wide. He wasn't even sure how he could tell his eyes color when the moon was but a sliver of light in the grove from the spaces between the oak branches. It was so strange, but the eyes seemed very familiar for some reason. _How can he use fire like that?_ he wondered. _Is he what I think he is?_

" W-who are you?" the boy asked in a scared, breathless voice.

" A witness to murder," the brunette replied in a cold tone. " Now how did you do that?"

" I-I don't kn-know what you're talking about," the blonde stated with a wary look in his eyes.

" The flames, they turned that man into charcoal and then soaked into your hands," he said in an irritated and curious tone. " How?"

" I-I don't know," the other boy shook his head.

" Bullshit," he growled.

" Look, who the hell are you?!" the blonde demanded, anger coming to his features to accompany is fear. " Who are you to demand answers form me?!"

" I am Seto Kaiba."

*****

Ryou sighed as he sat on his couch after finishing cleaning up after his small dinner. His father was off again on an expedition in South America so he was left home alone once again and didn't need to cook anything grand. His was worried about Yugi because of what had happened with Keith that afternoon and hoped the bully wouldn't cause him anymore trouble.

__

And that boy, Jounouchi, he recalled. _How did he know the school was unlocked? It's too coincidental for him to just show up._ It also was quite strange for the blonde to say he had beaten up Keith when he had no bruises or even looked to be injured. _Everything's going to be very strange this summer._ His eyes then fell on the box that had sat on the table since he'd gotten home. 

It was mailed with his name on it, but no return address so he figured it was from his father. He often forgot to place such things on the presents he sent his son from his many travels. _Wonder what he got me,_ he thought idly. Even though he missed having his father around, especially since his mother's death, but he did like to see the many different things he was sent so he could look up on them in his vast library of ancient history books.

He picked up the knife from beside the box and cut the tan-colored tape down the center. He then cut the tape off of the flaps so he could open it completely. Inside was a bundle of white cloth. He lifted it up and began to unwrap whatever was inside of it. Pushing away part of the last sheet of cloth he saw a flicker of gold. He grabbed the metal and lifted what appeared to be a ring from the pile of fabric.

It was quite a strange ring indeed. It was attached to a somewhat thick brown string that seemed very old and had five needle-like pedants attached to a large golden circle. In the center of the circle was carved eye that was definitely not from anywhere in South America. _This looks more like ancient Egyptian,_ he analyzed as he lifted the string so he could put it over his head.

Placing the ring on his neck he was struck with a serge of pain he had never felt before in his life. It was as if half of his soul was being ripped out. He clutched his chest and felt to the ground, screaming out in agony. But then suddenly the pain was gone and everything was all right again. His eyes opened, tears staining his cheeks and he stared at the ceiling from where he was laying.

" W-What h-happened-d?" he wondered out loud, his breathing irregular. He sat up, touching the ring that was now around his neck. For a second he could have sworn that the piece of jewelry had been glowing. Shaking it off, he decided that he really needed to get some sleep. He was feeling so tired he wasn't sure that he could even make it up to his room. So instead of trying the feat of mastering the climb up the stairs, he merely climbed back onto the couch and lay there, allowing the world of unconsciousness to overtake him in an instant.

*****

Brown eyes, suddenly tinted with red, stared at his bedroom with confusion clearly in their depths. He clutched his chest and stared at the ring that had suddenly appeared around his neck one a few seconds before. He felt as if he was missing part of himself, but it had been replaced by something else, something he needed much more. It confused and scared him at the same time. Funny how one could say the great Bakura Tokyame was afraid.

__

What happened to me? he asked in his mind, knowing no one could give him the answer. He growled as he stared down at the offensive gold trinket he was wearing and tried to take it off. As soon as he touched it he felt a shock go through his system. He pulled his hand back and could see smoke coming from his fingertips. " What the hell what that?!" he didn't even care that he was shouting out loud. 

His alarm went off right then and he looked at the clock. Most people would set their alarms to go off in the morning, but he set his off to tell him what time it was at night. And right then it was saying eight forty-five. He had to get to the hospital to stay with his mother. Growling in anger, he shook off the effects of whatever had just happened to him and grabbed his coat from his desk chair. He didn't have time for things like this. He had bigger problems to worry about.

__

I'm going to find out though, he told himself. _This is just to crazy for it to be anywhere near normal._

A/N: How was that for ya? Was the wait worth it? It's 12:30 now and we are finally finished. It took us six hours to write this, cook breakfast for my niece, and then edit this so we guess it came out okay.

JC: Now, we are putting the Siennen Items in here, but I'm not sure how big a part Duel Monsters will play yet. I am definitely thinking about adding them though. ^_^

Kathrine: Now, if we decide to add ALL of the seven items something had to change. The weight balance thingy will be replaced by the Siennen Earring. We have NO idea how to get that in there seeing as we've never seen it play any important role in the show yet.

JC: And yes we actually gave Bakura a last name. Ryo's will be different as well.

Kathrine: It would just be too strange for his last name to be Bakura's first.

JC: Okay so please review. We love how you guys like our work! ^_^


	4. Chapter 4 Chills and Even MORE Questions

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A/N: Hey there! Sorry for the long wait. We're moving so we have to fix up our new house (cries at how big it is) before we can and it needs a LOT of work done on it.

Kathrine: Yeah, so please be patient with us.

JC: Now, we would like to thank everyone for reviewing our little pathetic story here.

Kathrine: This is NOT pathetic! We've got 23 reviews for only 3 CHAPTERS!!! We haven't even gotten to the part where… (JC slaps hand over Kathrine's mouth)

JC: Do you want to spill everything?! (Lets out scream as Kathrine bites her hand. Pulls hand away and holds it to her chest) Jou's not the dog, you are!

Kathrine: And the point would be…?

JC: (Backs up a bit) I think I'll write from here. Oh, and we send a shout out to Jou-pup for giving us the info about the millennium balance… weight… libra-thingy. We are sooo definitely replacing it with the Millennium Earrings right now. See for them to work one each must be worn by two people

who are equal in heart, body, and soul and they are used connect all of the other Items together for a special 'ceremony' that will show up WAY later in the story because power was taken from each other Item to create them. They also bind the two bearers for eternity, life and death.

Kathrine: Just thought we'd give ya a bit to know what's gonna happen later.

JC: Now I'll answer some review, but I probably only answer those who ask questions 'cause I know most of you just skip straight to the fic.

FFNet-

Blu chocobo- Thank you for reviewing! You're the first for CH 3! (Inflating ego)

ArrowSphere- Thank you so much! You're one of the only people who read my other fics besides RW/GW!

Lady Guena- You'll see what happens right now. And yes, Seto's does know _something_. But I won't tell you how MUCH of that something he knows.

Jadej.j- OH MY GODDESS!!!!!!!!!!! YOU are reading MY fic?!! I bow down to you! What happened to your YGO/Beyblade fic? Is it gonna get finished??? GODS YOU READ OUR FIC!!!! (Jumps around like a sugar-highed child)

Rai-chan- Thank you for the compliments. We love when people do that. (Grins happily)

Jenniyah- Thanks a lot. We hope you like how we put them in here, but that won't come in until ALL the guys have their items.

Joey Lover- I am DYING for someone to tell ME about some Seto/Jou sites! I guess I'll have to do some hunting with my search engine and get back to ya. ^_^ 

MMOrg-

Dragondreamer Yami dragon - JOU IS MINE!!!! I CAN HURT HIM HOW I WANT!!

JC: Try to calm down. Can't you two share Jou? She can have him half the week and you can have him the other half and then share on Wednesdays.

Kathrine: That might be negotiable… I still need a blonde to harm for the other half of the week…

JC: What do you think we use Seiji from YST for?! I think he's got it worse than Jou!

Kathrine: For now…

Jou-pup – Thanks a bunch. You get a prize! Hope you like the Earring Item.

(Now on to the fic…)

Disclaimer: WE DON"T OWN ANYTHING BUT THE EARRINGS WHICH HAVEN"T EVEN SHOWED UP YET!! Oh and Doc Katsu.

Warnings: Nothing really for this chapter, save language. But Seto _does_ get to show off a bit…

__

From within the Flames

BY JC and Kathrine

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Chapter 4 – Chills and Questions

__

Oh my Gods…Jounouchi stared with shock quite apparent into ice blue eyes. _How can he be a Kaiba? Gozuborou didn't have any children and he looks NOTHING like him! Could he be his nephew?_ He could feel anger, fear, and apprehension just from the mentioning of his name. Now he had no idea what he was going to do. _Did them send him after me this time? What's going on?_

Seto was watching the play of emotions on the boy's face. He was deathly pale in the dim light that was in the grove and his eyes were wide in disbelief. " Y-you're a K-Kaiba?" the blonde forced out.

" Of course," he gave him an irritated glare. " Who else could run Kaiba Corp.?"

This only seemed to make the blonde even more unstable and his legs practically collapsed from beneath him. He quickly placed his hands against the tree to hold himself up. To Seto, he looked as if he was drained of all his energy and was barely maintaining his upright position.

" Y-you…no, no…" Jou shook his head, ignoring the dizziness that came when he did so. " Y-you c-can't be the h-head of Kaiba Corp." He slowly used was strength he had left to back away from the brunette.

" And why not?" the other boy was more than just a little offended by that, but was curious due to the fear that was in the mysterious boy's eyes. _Why is he so afraid of Kaiba Corp.?_

Jou was not about to answer any more of the Kaiba boy's questions. He had to get out of there and fast. THEY could be searching for him right now; the brunette could have very well been sent by Them. He needed to get back to the school so he could rest. He was drained from the forced release of the Flame and knew he didn't have the strength to protect himself if They came after him now.

" I gotta get outta here," he mumbled to himself and turned to leave. He didn't care that he was running from the scene of a murder. The guy wasn't the first person he'd killed and he knew it probably wouldn't be the last. Seto gave another glance at the charred corpse and just shrugged it off. The man was probably a waste of life anyway and he'd been taught that such people needed to be gotten rid of. Death was just apart of life for the weak, no matter how it came about, and the strong had to keep their minds on what was more important.

The blonde boy was about to run away and he wasn't going to let him. He closed the difference between them and grabbed the Pyro's wrist in a tight grip. But just as he grabbed he was assaulted with a sensation of warmth that ran from his arm and into his body. It was such a contrast to the familiar coldness that was eternally present within his bones and skin. He entire body was encompassed in the warmth and was instantly addicted to it.

Jou was feeling almost exactly the opposite. His body was being pulled into a dreadful chill. It was as if the fire that had lived in him since he was born was being frozen in a layer of ice. He felt himself growing tired, his body shutting down from the cold. He remembered this sense of fatigue and numbness. It was the same as with the man that had raised him. _But he was cold because…_

His eyes grew heavy and his limbs even more so than before. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the two ice blue eyes staring at him intently just as he whispered, " Gozuborou…"

Seto watched as the blonde's eyes widened before the lids lowered a little and then fluttered closed. The boy's body went limp just as he whispered a name that the brunette had tried to forget, tried to push into the background of his mind. _How does he know HIM?_ he wondered as he caught the blonde's body before it fell to the ground. He stared at the blonde's weary features and couldn't help but feel something familiar. It was something laying beneath the ice in his mind that just wouldn't come to the surface.

__

But he still didn't tell me who he was, he thought._ I want answers and he's going to give them. _Looking around he realized that they needed to leave the park or else it would seem _too_ suspicious about them being near a burned corpse. _Well, Mokuba has always said that I should learn to be kinder to people and he would never forgive me if I just left him here like this._ Picking the blonde up into his arms, he headed back towards his laptop and briefcase that held his cell-phone. It was time for him to go home.

*****

A young girl jumped up in bed with wide eyes and a gasp escaping her lips. She wrapped her hands around herself and couldn't help but shiver. She felt soo cold. The warmth that she'd always felt before was gone. _What's happening to me?_ she wondered. She couldn't remember a time that she hadn't felt warm and safe. The Warmth had been the final gift given to her by the one person that cared for her most. He'd given it to her so she'd always feel safe.

__

Onii-san…her eyes widened. _Something's happened to Onii-san!_ Immediately, she turned over and pressed the button on a black box-like machine that was on the night table repeatedly. In less than a minute something rushed into her room. It was a tall slender-looking young woman with long flowing blonde hair that was pulled up into an untidy ponytail and wearing a nightgown. It was obvious she'd just been awakened from her sleep.

" Serenity what's wrong?" she asked in a worried tone. " Why were you pressing the calling button I gave you like that?"

" Something's happened to my brother!" the brunette girl cried out as she climbed out of the bed. " I know something's happened to him!"

" Calm down kid," the old woman told her as she took her hand and patted it affectionately. " Everything is fine, I bet nothing has happened at all."

" B-but I feel so cold inside," the girl protested. " I know it's because something has happened to my brother. I have to make sure he's okay, Mai!"

" You know you can't do that," she stated. " You're surgery's tomorrow and you need to get some sleep. Just calm down and go back to sleep. I'll have Mom make some calls in the morning, okay?"

" All right," the girl seemed a little more relaxed with the blonde's reassuring words. " But this has happened before, remember? I don't like feeling so cold."

Mai gave the girl a short hug and pushed her back towards her bed. " You go to sleep and I better get out of here so that the doctor's don't find out that I was in here," she told her. " I'll take care of everything." The girl nodded at her and she could see that there were traces of tears in her eyes. She was really shaken up by whatever she felt. Mai knew that the girl was special and had gifts, but also had to have weekly treatments that had led up to her eye surgery. She only hoped it would all work to keep her sight.

She watched as she laid back down and then smiled at her before leaving the room. The doctor's didn't want her to have visitors the night before her operation. They said that it might cause her to be too afraid to go through with it. Mai knew that there was something else to it. _I just hope that we can actually get in contact with her brother this time so that she won't worry so much._

This wasn't the first time the young girl that her mother had taken into foster care had asked about her older brother. Every time they tried to find something out for her the foster care board told her that he had been adopted because their parent's had died, but they couldn't tell her by who because it was against the law. Mai's mother had immediately requested to be able to adopt Serenity and was given permission, though the government still paid all of her medical bills.

But now the girl seemed very worried about her older brother that she never ceased to talk about. She'd only been five when they'd taken her in and yet she seemed to have a very good memory about her brother. She would tell them anything she could about him and yet didn't speak about if she remembered whom they lived with before she'd come to them. That had always confused both Mai and her mother. _I do hope we can find something to keep her from worrying,_ the blonde prayed. _I also hope that she isn't right and he is being hurt. Serenity seems to be so driven on finding him and becoming a family with him again._

She walked down the hall and saw the black-haired boy sitting down in a chair in the waiting room. " What was wrong with her?" he asked instantly, his blue/violet eyes filled with concern.

" She just had a nightmare, Mokuba," Mai assured him. " I guess she's getting pre-surgery jitters." The boy nodded and sat back in his chair. She couldn't deny that he was utterly adorably with his long, untamed black hair and the air or maturity he had with him for a mere boy of thirteen. He reminded her of his brother because of that.

" Hey, don't you think you should call your brother?" she asked him. " He'll think I'm not taking good care of you or something. He does anyway."

" Nah," he gave a weary shake of his head. " He thinks I was just coming over for a sleepover. I didn't tell him that Serenity was having an operation."

" Ya know he hates ya lying to him," Mai warned.

" He doesn't like hospitals, he wouldn't have let me be here for her," he explained. " Plus, I know he hates _this_ place especially. Guess it cause 'you know who' used to sponsor most of the work done here."

" Well, how 'bout we go get something to snack on?" the blonde suggested. " It's gonna be a long night."

" Fine," Mokuba nodded and followed after her as she went towards the hospital cafeteria.

*****

His felt the Flame strengthening within himself and unconsciousness was waning. He was fighting to wake up, to find out what had happened. He hated that he'd fallen out right when he was in enemy territory with no way to defend himself or anything. Gods, how could have just passed out like that when he had just come face to face with the Kaiba who had inherited his former caretaker's life's work? Oh yeah, the cold...

He gave a low groan and turned so that he was lying on his side and was vaguely aware of the feel of satin against his skin that was beyond his sluggish senses. But why would he feel satin? Where was he? Certainly not in the park only a few feet away from a charbroiled former human being. He forced his eyes to open, feeling their heavy lids flutter heavily before finally welcoming in the light of dimmed overhead bulb. He squinted his eyes for a moment before opening them completely and taking in his surroundings. What he saw confused and shocked his at the same time.

He was in a room, a nicely furnished room at that. He was lying in a nicely-crafted, dark oak queen-size bed with red and black sheets and large posts that looked as if they should be on an over-sized canopy bed. His vision blurred for a moment and he could tell he was in great need of a recharging. He didn't feel a fire in the room and the next best thing, a person, probably wasn't nearby either.

__

That is, unless that psycho Kaiba is somewhere close by, he thought. _This is probably his house. _That's when he thought of something that he didn't want to think of as a possibility. _What if I'm here cause he called Them? Gods, they could be on their way here to get me right now!_ He had to get up, he told himself. He had to find his way out of wherever he was and hide. THEY wouldn't take too long to show up to retrieve him and he didn't know for how long he'd been unconscious.

He looked around the room and saw an empty fireplace with a thin television screen above it, two empty chairs, a desk, a wardrobe, a dresser, a table, and the single window in the room was covered with thick black curtains that refused to allow any light to shine through. He couldn't even tell if it was still night or if he had slept through until the morning. His movements were drained and sluggish, his entire body wanting to fall back onto the soft mattress of the bed instead of dragging itself across the floor, as he slid from beneath the sheets and stood.

He felt himself tip over and immediately grabbed onto the nearest bedpost. He held onto it until the dizziness went away and once again tried to move towards the window. He was grateful for whoever was watching that the table was in the distance between the bed his destination. He moved only a few feet before feeling queasy and reaching out to place his hand on the cheery oak of the table. _What's with this guy and oak?_ He wondered. It reminded him so much of someone else that he had known. _Yeah, HE loved oak, too_, he thought sourly.

When he realized he was at the opposite end of the fairly large table, he gathered what strength he had and forced himself to let it go and continue on by himself. _All this work just to get to a window, _he snickered ironically. _Before I ran I never would have dealt with energy drain like this. I had the right type of energy all the time rather than using people most the time instead of fire. Their energy is from sugars that drain to quickly._

He gripped the drapes and could tell they were made from some thick, almost leather-like material. _Gods, what is with all the similarities?_ He frowned. _He might as well be living in Gozuborou's house!_ He moved the drape, tugging on it roughly and was assaulted by the brightness of the morning sun in the sky. He put up his hands instantly to protect his eyes and growled in frustration.

__

Okay…so clearly I've been out all night, he thought and then whispered, " So how the hell am I going to get out of here?" That's when the clapping began.

He spun on his heels, his entire body forgetting its fatigue to remain alert and ready for anything. What caught his eyes was that the sounds were coming from the corner of the room farthest away from him. He stared into the still shadowed area and watched as the same figure from the night before. _Oh shit, it's him…that Seto Kaiba…But why couldn't I tell he was here?_

" I see that you actually have the strength to get out of bed," he mocked with a stone cold expression, not even a smirk on his lips. " From the way you passed out last night, I thought you were one of those weak people who can't even tie their own shoes because that was purely pathetic."

" What are you callin' pathetic?!" Jou growled. " You're the one that grabbed me! ya the one that couldn' mind ya own business! Now where the hell are we?!"

" Well, you seemed as if you knew so much about the Kaiba's seeing as you said I couldn't possibly be the head of the Corporation so I decided to bring you to my home," the brunette seemed so nonchalant. " And besides, I wanted to know how you knew Gozuborou?"

" What's to ya how I knew him?!" Jounouchi was becoming very defensive. He didn't trust this boy as much as he trusted the dead man himself, so why should he answer any of his questions?

" He was my father, so I believe I have a right to know," the other stated coldly.

The blonde felt his heart stop for a few seconds before it began to beat again, this time at much faster rate. _B-but Gozuborou didn't have any kids,_ he thought. _H-he c-couldn't be his son. Gods, please let this just be a bad nightmare that I can wake up from. _

" Is something wrong with you?" Seto demanded, not understanding the other boy's paleness. _How does he know HIM? Is he another one from the EP?_

" N-no," Jou stated, trying to regain his composure.

" Then why are you shaking like a frightened dog?" Seto asked. And strangely enough, to the brunette the boy did seem like some kind of puppy. The way his eyes were that deep yet light honey-colored brown, the way his hair was shaggy and in his face, some trailing down past his neck, and how he continued to try and ignore his own fear when it was obvious that something had him terrified.

Jou started at the word 'dog'. _Gods, why can't people stop calling me that?! They always called me that…_ Then he set his face in a snarl and glared at the other teen. " You want so many answers from me, then why don't you answer some questions yourself?" he questioned. " I'm not talking until you do."

" Twenty questions is it?" the brunette stared at him impassively. " Depends on how good your answers are."

" Screw that!" the blonde shook his head. " I'm not telling you anything until you tell me how you're Gozuborou's kid! I know for a fact he never even got married! Unless you're some type of illegitimate brat I don't see how you're his!" He saw the punch coming, but was too tired and too conditioned for punishment to even think of blocking. He was knocked back into the wall with a loud thud and slowly shook of the effects. He looked up and could see a cold fire burning in ice blue eyes.

" Never call me anything like that again," Seto warned and then smirked when the blonde did and said nothing in return. " You're a mongrel just like I thought, all bark and no bite."

" Shut the hell up!" Jou shouted back at him. " Call me that one more time and I'll burn your ass! After last night, you know I can!"

This only caused the other to begin to chuckle and Jou could tell he wasn't buying his bluff. " You can't even stand straight," Seto pointed out. " You have no energy left to do anything and are practically at my mercy."

" Lie hell I am!" Jou forced himself to stand again, he wasn't going to let this rich ass baka show him up. He knew he had energy left in him somewhere…if he could tap into it.

" Keep trying to get up puppy and maybe you won't be able to anymore," Seto mocked him.

" What the hell do you want from me?!" This guy was _really_ asking for it! How dare he kidnap him and them make fun of him by calling him a _dog_ of all things that he could think of to insult him with.

" I already told you," the brunette frowned. " I guess your memory span is that of a dog's as well. You are to give me the answers that I want."

" I am not to give you anything!"

" Are you so sure about that?" Seto raised one eyebrow in question. " I think that I can be very 'persuasive' when I have to be and I know that I can find _something_ to convince you." Jou's eyes widened at the implications of the other boy's words. He had no idea what the other was going to do and that scared him more than he would even admit to himself. Why couldn't he let him go?

He took a step back and couldn't help but feel cold for some reason. He looked around and took in a deep breath, coughing at the strangely chilly air. Breathing out he noticed that he was beginning to be able to see his breath in front of his face. He brought his hands up to his arms and began to rub them to bring the warmth back, but he was too drained to keep his body temperature up.

" Feeling a little cold?" the brunette asked him with a smirk on his lips.

Jou turned his eyes back to stare at him. " What are you trying to do to the room?" he demanded to know.

" I'm not _trying_ to do anything," Seto replied. The blonde noticed that he didn't seem effected at all by the sudden temperature drop in the room. His breath was even showing in the air like his was. He knew that something was definitely not right with the seemingly psychotic boy who had taken him captive. _What the hell is wrong with him?!_

" Stop it!" Jou shouted, his body becoming more chilled by the second. Looking around, he noticed that the furniture in the room was becoming covered in a light layer of what appeared to be a clear shiny substance. He stared at the drapes next to him and reached a cold hand to touch them. To his complete shock the drapes felt completely ice cold and as hard a rock. He tapped it and was startled by the one drape cracking, a piece of it then falling to the floor and shattering.

" I'm amazed you haven't frozen to death yet," Seto stared at him curiously. " Could it be that the fire you used to kill that man last also keeps you stable in cold temperatures?"

" N-none of y-your business," Jou's teeth began to chatter. He wrapped his arms around himself and tried to keep the warmth he had. The lack of energy was causing what little bit of warmth had been sustaining him to decrease rapidly. He knew that if he didn't do something then he would be a Jounouchi ice cone in less then ten minutes. _He has to be part of the Project of else he wouldn't be able to do this, let alone survive in it. _Then he made a desperate decision._ I'm gonna have to tell him something or else I'm done for._

" F-fin-ne," he gave in. " I-I'll t-tell. J-just t-turn b-back o-on the h-heat o-or s-s-something."

" Good boy," Seto was pleased by his submission and let his power recede. He felt the cold return to his body, no longer being released freely into the room they were in. Jou rubbed his arms faster, the paleness that his skin had turned slowly changing back to its naturally lightly tanned tone. Seto could feel the same sense of déjà vu at the way the boy was holding himself. It seemed soo familiar and yet he didn't know why.

" W-why do you want to know, besides how I know Gozuborou?" the blonde was wary of how he phrased his words because he didn't want to give the arrogant jerk another opening to insult him. He was going to snap if he heard anything else referring to 'dogs'.

" That's a very good place to begin," Seto replied. Walking around to the desk and then sat down in the black leather chair behind it. " How do you know my 'dearly departed father'?" Jou wasn't too oblivious as to not notice the hidden deprecation and malice when mentioning Gozuborou.

" Well…" he knew he couldn't tell him the truth. How could he explain that the man had adopted him and his sister, only to train him like a soldier and the get rid of his sister when he was becoming a bother to him. It didn't seem like the brunette liked the man anymore than he did, but he wasn't sure. This 'Seto' was hard to read and he didn't have the gifts his sister had. Then he decided that the best lie was one with truth in it for they were easier to cover up.

" I met him when I was in an orphanage after my parents died in a car crash," he stated. " He was looking for a kid or two to adopt and he checked out me and my sister. He didn't want us, but his 'friend' took us in instead. I saw him a lot 'cause my adopted dad worked for him before he died." Well, that was as close to the truth as he was getting and Doctor Katsuya had been the real 'father figure' in his life anyway.

" Who was your father?" Seto questioned. " If he still works there then I might have met him before. But I don't think I've never seen you before."

" Well…he's dead," Jou told him.

" Really?" Seto's eyes perked at this tidbit of information.

" Yeah, he died of a heart attack," Jou went on. " It was like something just came and ripped his soul from his body." _Or more like a golden something belonging to a certain silver-haired psycho…_

" _Who _was he?" the brunette repeated.

" Tero Katsuya," the blonde replied.

" Nani?" Seto stared at him. " That fossil was too old to even adopt kids. No wonder he died."

" Shut up!" Jou snarled at him. " He was the best man I've ever known! Don't you dare to insult him while I'm around! Now I want some answers! I told you what you wanted and I want to know some things too!" 

Seto just stared at him with the same apathetic expression, but in his mind the wheels were turning with great interest. _What is it with this boy that he just demands things from ME like that? I've never met anyone like him. Strange that we would meet and be apart of the same 'great plan' that those six on the board planned so long ago. Maybe I'll keep him around for a while._

****

A/N: Gods, how was that? It wasn't too bad.

JC: Now this is for all of those people who thought we were gonna just oust Mokuba! (Blows raspberries at everyone) I love him way too much and it makes for a great twist.

Kathrine: Okay now just review and we'll reply to the first five. Oh and Jou-pup, we forgot to mention what ya got for the info. You give us a name of a person and we give it to an OC in the fic and you can even design the person if ya want.

JC: See, help get reward. Help-reward. We like that system. ^_^

Kathrine: Bye!


	5. Chapter 5 Shocking Developments

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A/N: Hey people we finally did it! We got out another chapter!

JC: You know that the Writer's Block demon had us in its claws but Kathrine is in the process of trying to cook it for her Goddess.

Kathrine: It would make a great stew!

JC: 0_0 Anyway, this was difficult. Mainly because we're trying hard to keep everyone in character even though they still have feelings. The Bakura part took us the longest.

Kathrine: As soon as we got to the Malik/Marik part though everything came easy so we just HAD to get it up for you people who have been waitin for so long.

JC: Now we won't answer reviews because it's 4:30 in the morning and we are very tired. Don't be surprised at the bad editing.

Kathrine: And Jou-pup we did create a character for you. He's very minor so don't worry. He just pops up this once and maybe later on for a cameo.

JC: Now everyone, enjoy! And thanks for all of the reviews. We've never had so many for one chapter before so we're honored you like this story so much.

Kathrine: Your kind words are highly appreciated.

Disclaimer: WE DON'T OWM YUGIOH!!!!!!! GOT THAT?!!!!

Warnings: YAOI/Shounen Ai, dark themes, cliffhangers(occasionally), anything else we forgot

__

From within the Flames

By Kathrine and JC

****

Chapter 5 – Shocking Developments

Yami sighed as he exited the game shop owned by Yugi's grandfather. He had gone by to make sure that nothing had happened the night before, seeing as Yugi was in the hospital. But now he was on his way to get Yugi and knew that his 'twin' would be pleased to know that everything was fine with the shop. Just as he was locking the door and hurrying off the front step, he almost tripped over a box that was in his way.

Catching himself, he looked down at the box in confusion. He knew it hadn't been there when he'd gone in the building and the mail didn't run on Sundays. _Where did this come from?_ He wondered as he stooped down to pick it up. He touched the box and felt and strange shock go through him. The tri-color-haired instantly pulled away and gazed at the bow for a moment. Then he let out a relieved chuckle, " Probably just static electricity."

The name on the box was addressed to Yugi Mouto, but had no return address on it. _Could it be from a secret admirer?_ Yami wondered. The thought alone made him want to chuck the box into the garbage and act like he'd never seen it. He was about to do just that, but stopped. _Yugi might like the girl that sent this. I couldn't just throw it away._ Sighing dismally, he walked over to his convertible and set the package in his front passenger seat. Then he got in and started it up, driving towards the hospital to pick up his friend.

*****

Ryou was heading towards Yugi's room to visit with him before Yami came to take him home, but couldn't deny that he felt tired. He'd felt drained since he woke up that morning and couldn't figure out why. Subconsciously, he ran his hands over the ring that was on the worn thread around his neck, letting the miniature obelisks dangling from it clink against each other quietly. He was so distracted by his tiredness that he didn't notice himself taking the wrong turn and heading down the hall towards the Intensive Care Unit, or that the ring about his neck had flickered dimly for a moment before becoming dormant.

" Oh dear," he spoke when he looked up and noticed that he didn't see Yugi's room number on any of the doors. _Maybe I took a wrong turn,_ he thought before turning around and to head back the way he came. But as he did he noticed a familiar figure entering a room just off the hall he was in. A _very_ familiar figure with long jagged white hair. 

__

Bakura? His eyes widened. _What would he be doing here? _That's when he remembered that the other boy's mother was ill and in the hospital. If he remembered it was because she had a weak heart and rumors were going around that nothing seemed to help her. Many said she wouldn't live very much longer. _I do hope that she does recover, it must hurt Bakura to know that he might lose the only parent he has left._

Curiosity got the better of him. He'd never met the his 'twin's' mother before, the white-haired boy never telling anyone where he lived and scaring off any who would have attempted to find out. So he walked down the hall towards the door the boy had entered, trying to suppress the strange sense of fear he had. He knew the door when he saw it for it had the surname _Kytsune_ on a slip in a plastic plate. Strangely the door was partially open, but he had to peek around it so that hopefully no one, more or less Bakura, would catch him eavesdropping.

What he saw almost shocked him. The other white-haired boy was fluffing the pillows of a pale, black-haired woman that was lying on the bed with IVs and monitors around her. The boy stopped once she nodded to him with a loving smile on her face and he walked around to sit down in a chair beside the bed, facing towards Ryou but hidden mostly by the bed and its railings. He took the woman's hand in his own a kissed it gently. _Bakura? Is that him? I never knew he could act so…so kind, but she is his mother._ He strained his ears so that he could hear the conversation that was going on between the two in the room.

*****

Bakura had just returned from throwing away his mother's lunch tray and refilling her jug of water. He'd placed the pitcher on the bedside table and then proceeded to make his mother more comfortable. He knew that being trapped in a hospital bed for four months was very confining to a woman who enjoyed working in the yard and enjoying life to the fullest. He noticed that she was becoming pale, more so than he'd seen her the night before or even over the past few days. _Is she getting worse? The doctors did say that she could get sicker, that they couldn't help her._

" Is everything all right 'Kura?" she questioned sensing that something was wrong in her son. She knew that he had so much built up anger since his father's murder and hadn't been able to find a release for it. Her becoming ill had only deepened his anger and hatred towards the world and everyone in it. And nothing she could say or do could change how he felt.

" Everything is fine, Mother," he assured her, trying to hide his emotions. " Just waiting for summer vacation I guess."

" Oh, all right," she let it go…for now. " Then tell me, how is my garden? Are the flowers blooming yet? Has the Sakura tree blossomed in the backyard?"

" Not yet," he told her. " You'll be home before it does." He could feel the lies in his own words. He knew his mother was never leaving the hospital, that she would never come home to take care of her garden or watch the Sakura tree bloom. _She'll stay trapped in this fucking hospital bed until the day she DOES die. Weak woman, why do you have to be so fragile, so easily sickened…so easily taken away from me?_

" Great," she smiled once again. " Now how has school been going, you never told me yesterday."

" Finals are this week," he told her. " I will be able to see you more often once I'm done with them."

" How are your friends?" she questioned. " Have Marik and Malik been into anymore trouble?"

" No more than usual, Mother," he told her, not getting into the details of the day before and Marik's new 'obsession'. He also wasn't ready to tell her about the mysterious golden ring that was hidden beneath his black T-shirt that read in bloody letters, _Hell has nothing on me,_ which he'd covered with a dark gray button-up. His mother hated when he wore it so he agreed to hide it for her. To him she was weak enough without becoming more so by arguing with him. _Maybe she'll become stronger given time to do so,_ he thought idly.

" So I take it that Principal took my advice on joining that Saturday club?" she smiled.

" You _told_ him to do that to us?!" Bakura's eyes widened. _Wait a minute…_ " Kokude came here to _see_ you?!"

" Hai, to tell me of you, Malik, and Marik breaking into his office and burning his favorite bonsai tree," she nodded, giving him a quick glare that seemed so unlike the frail condition she was in. " You shouldn't do things like that Kura, you'll get into trouble that you can't get out of one day."

" Save it Mother," the white-haired boy's eyes cut into slits. " What I do is not your concern." He stood up, his entire demeanor changing to the one he used during the rest of the day when he wasn't around his mother.

" Please Kura, don't you see that I just worry about you?" she extended her hand out towards his arm, but he moved away from her.

" Don't start," he shook his head then headed towards the door. " I need some air. I'll be back shortly."

" Kura…" she sighed, knowing it was best to leave it be. Her son believed that she shouldn't interfere with his life and how he lived it. He thought she was just supposed to stay in that bed and allow him to vent his hate and anger on those he thought deserved it, but she couldn't. She couldn't let him destroy his life just because he couldn't control his own hate. _Don't you know how much it hurts me to see you like this?_ She wondered.

*****

Ryou watched form the sidelines, eyes wide at the events going on in the room. He'd never seen such a side to Bakura. He could see an emotion in his eyes even from far away that normally wasn't there, love. But why did he have to act so hateful and angry when it was obvious that he knew how to care about people. _If he'd only let someone get close enough to prove it to him,_ he sighed.

Deciding he'd intruded enough, he quickly turned around and headed down the hall before Bakura noticed him. He needed to find an orderly anyway so he could get to Yugi's room. He turned around a corner and accidentally bumped into someone, catching himself against the wall instead of falling. He looked up and saw that it was a male nurse with auburn hair and sea green eyes.

" Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Kytsune," he apologized. " How is your mother doing today? I'm supposed to watch over her tonight."

" Ummm well I…" Ryou didn't know what to say. He'd been mistaken for Bakura before, but it rarely happened. Most people always said that he looked too innocent to be his 'twin'.

" And how could you mistake him as me?" a voice behind him asked coldly. Ryou turned his head quickly and saw said 'twin' standing behind him.

" Oh dear, sorry for the mistake," the nurse said quickly.

" Whatever Shin," Bakura frowned. " Now what were you saying about my mother?"

" Just that I was supposed to watch over her during my extra shift tonight," he said in a kind tone that showed he was used to Bakura's attitude.

" Fine," the white-haired boy replied. The nurse nodded and walked around them both.

" Well, nice seeing you," he excused politely. " Sorry again for the mix up." With that left to check on other patients.

Bakura ignored him as stared straight at Ryou, who was becoming uncomfortable. " Why are you here?" he demanded more than asked.

" I came to see Yugi before Yami came to take him home," Ryou said, slowly turning around so that he could fully face the other boy. It was then that Bakura actually got a clear view of the certain 'item' that he was wearing around his neck. His eyes widened and his hand unconsciously went to his own chest.

" Where did you get that ring?" he asked immediately.

Ryou gazed at him confusedly before looking down at the golden ring he'd gotten from his father. " I got it in the mail from my father," he explained, not sure why the other boy was interested in it. " I guess it's from his latest dig."

" When did you get it?" Bakura's voice was still cold and harsh, but Ryou could tell that his eyes were filled with something he almost believed was fear. But Bakura feared nothing and no one so that was impossible.

" Yesterday, why?" Ryou answered. _What is wrong with him? He's never acted like this before. Is it because of seeing his mother?_

Bakura realized that he was showing weakness from his actions and quickly tried to get himself back under control. He wasn't going to show weakness to anyone, especially his _'twin'_. " No reason at all, just wondered when you started to wear girl's jewelry," he replied. " Especially something that looks completely like its been hiding in a tomb for a few thousand years." With that he spun around and stalked off back down the hall that his mother's room was in.

Ryou watched him go in complete confusion. Why was he acting so strange? He sighed and then smacked himself gently on the forehead. " I could have asked that nurse Shin how to get to Yugi's room," he realized. He took it up as a loss and continued down the hall in the opposite direction as Bakura hoping that he would run into someone soon.

Bakura watched him go from around the corner before leaning against the wall. _But how is that possible?_ He asked himself. _How is it that he has the exact same ring that appeared around my neck last night? Is it some kind of trick? Is he lying? But how the hell did it appear in the first place?!_

He'd always known that something was different about himself, something deep inside that told him so. And he'd really believed it with his strange white hair and pale skin that was unheard of with Japanese people. Then he'd met Ryou and wondered how it was possible for two people to look so much alike. Well, Yugi, Yami, Malik, and Marik really threw him off guard with their uncanny likenesses. It was as if someone had made them specifically to look like each other.

__

Does this have to do with why we look alike? He wondered, unsure of when he would find out the answer. But then he realized that all of his earlier anger had vanished with his questions about the new predicament that had arisen. _Mother's probably worried,_ he thought. _She's still weak, her heart can't take much more._ He stood away from the wall then and went back to his mother's room, pushing all his questions out of his mind for now. 

*****

" Something is wrong Marik," Malik told him over the phone. It was actually one of the only times that his boyfriend/lover wasn't with him, for he'd gone home to check in, and he couldn't help the sense of unease he felt. It was like something was pulling at him, trying to get him to realize something that he wanted terribly to forget, and yet didn't even know why he wanted to forget it. It was just the sense of foreboding that he remembered so well from his youth.

{ " You don't have anything to worry about," his 'twin' assured him. " I'm sure nothing's wrong Want me and Bakura to come over?" }

" It's only eleven," Malik reminded him. " He's still visiting with his mother until about three remember? It _is_ Sunday."

{ " Right but I'll still be over in a few minutes," the other blonde said to keep him calm. " Just wait." }

" All right," Malik agreed, hanging up the phone and sitting down on the couch for a short while, lying down on his side so that his back didn't touched the back of the piece of furniture. It still stung every now and then even though it'd been years since the damage had been done to it. _Gods, why do I feel like this?_ He wondered. _Something's coming and I don't think it's going to be good._ That's when a thought came to his mind.

He stood and hurried down the hall towards the bedrooms, stopping at the doorway he knew hadn't been opened in six years. He was almost afraid to go in, memories of the room plaguing him still. But he took a deep breath, steadying his nerves, and opened the door, stepping into the room before he lost his cool. It was a sparsely filled room, but everything in it were pieces from his true homeland, Egypt.

The bureau, the bed, even the bedside table had been brought with his parents from Egypt when they had bought the home. It had been his parents' room before he was born and only his father's afterwards. He always blamed himself for his mother's death, even though his sister Isis told him it was actually an infection from afterwards that had led to her demise. But Isis had only been eight, she couldn't possibly have fully understood back then.

His eyes traveled from the room itself and landed on the door to the closet in the corner. _Is it still even there or did Isis move it?_ he wondered. He stood in front of it now, unsure of whether or not he should be doing this at all. _It helped me before,_ he reminded himself. _I was so scared then, it might…_ He shook his head. How could he be thinking of that thing as a person?

__

I'm losing it, he thought sarcastically, not fully sure if it was untrue this time. He opened the door slowly, not taking time to regret his actions. To one side of the closet were clothes, shoes, and even two or three briefcases that he knew belonged to his father. On the other side was a beautiful, traditional Egyptian wedding dress made of pure silk and that had been handmade by his Great-grandmother for his mother. He froze for a moment, looking at it and thinking of all the other times that he had done so in his younger years, imagining his mother and what she would have been like in his mind.

Kneeling down he moved around the dress the to back of the closet, feeling the wall for the hole he knew was there. Then he felt his fingers slide over it, a small hole that was only large enough for a finger to fit in, especially if it was a slender finger. He slid his one index in easily and then pulled, catching the small board as it fell from the wall. He moved the board and reached his hand in, grimacing at the feeling of cobwebs, but continued his search.

He smiled when he touched something lightly with his fingers and then reached in further, grasping it around the handle. He felt a rush then, a bright light bursting from the cubbyhole and hitting him directly in the chest. He was thrown back into the wall grasping onto one of the suits and pulling it with him. He heard a loud shout of pain, but was too shocked to even pay it any mind.

The 'thing' was no longer in the cubbyhole, but floating in the air in front of him while emitting a gentle golden glow. It was a scepter or rod of some sort. The head was a round sphere with gold wings on the sides, the Eye of Horus in its center. His eyes were wide with disbelief, but he couldn't stop himself from reaching out and grasping it. The glow disappeared then and he was left alone, the rod in his hand.

He felt a tingle in the back of mind and a thud was heard from another room. " Malik!" a familiar voice shouted and this time he did pay attention.

" Marik?" he called back. His lover sounded hurt for some reason. He shakily stood and stumbled out of the closet, leaving the room and heading for where the voice had originated.

*****

The somewhat 'mentally unstable' blonde had just reached his lover's front door when he felt the strange sensation of something burning inside of him. He tried to ignore it, but didn't seem to be able to. He pushed open the door and entered, becoming worried when he didn't see Malik. " Malik?" he called out, but no one answered. He walked from the foyer and into the living room, but still he saw no one.

It was then that the burning turned into a fire in his veins and he let out a shout, dropping to his knees and falling against the coffee table. His head started to throb and put his hands to his temples in hopes of alleviating it. Suddenly, it was as if lightning ran through his body and he was jolted. He dropped to the floor, eyes wide in shock. That's when he felt more than saw the bright glow before him.

It was soft and somewhat gentle, though it seemed to be powerful by just itself. He stared at it in confusion, feeling pulled towards it. He extended his hand towards the light and felt his fingers wrap around something that he couldn't quite see. The pain he felt was then gone and he was able to breathe easier. He hand dropped to the ground and he heard a loud thud from whatever he was holding so tightly.

" Malik!" he yelled out, still worried about his 'twin'. He was greeted with an uncertain reply before the other boy came walking unsteadily into the room soon after. The other blonde's eyes were unfocused somewhat and he seemed out of breath, but he saw nothing else wrong with him. Although in his hand was a strange rod-looking object.

Malik stared at his lover laying on the floor by the table and hurried to him as fast as he could. He kneeled down next to him and placed a hand on his head. " Are you all right?" he asked immediately.

"I-I'm not sure," Marik answered truthfully, his entire body still reeling from whatever had happened. Malik looked him over and noticed something he was holding in his hand that seemed hidden by the table. His eyes widened as he realized that it was a golden rod identical to the one he himself held. He stared at it in complete disbelief and confusion, not knowing what was going on.

" Oh Gods, what's happening to us?" he asked in an awed voice.

*****

" Now I want some answers!" Jounouchi demanded. " I told you what you wanted now I want to know some things too!"

" And what would that be?" Seto asked with a feigned curious tone.

" Why am I here, besides to give you answers?" Jou asked. " What do you want from me?" He wasn't going to be used again, he didn't care if he had to burn the house down first. It just wasn't an option he would ever look towards.

" Nothing, I just wanted to know how you knew Gozuborou," Seto replied. " Was that all?"

" Bullshit," Jou spat. " You don't seem like that kinda person and I barely know ya."

" Perceptive," Seto acknowledged.

" Knew there was something else to this," Jou growled, backing farther away from the other boy.

" How did you get your abilities?" Seto finally asked. " Don't play with me either. I pretty much know how you got them."

" Then why ask if ya already know?" the blonde questioned sarcastically. " You don't seem like a stupid person, but maybe I'm wrong."

The brunette cut his eyes at that comment and then stepped closer to the other boy. " I prefer my assumptions to be confirmed or else they cannot truly be called 'fact'," he answered icily. " But if you want to uncooperative, fine. You are part of the project held by Kaiba Corporations that dealt with genetically engineering people to have certain 'abilities' so that they could be used later."

" Wow and they say that all rich people are dumbasses," Jou mocked.

" You're testing my temper, dog," Seto warned, the boy reminding him of a tempered canine at that moment.

" Dog?!" Jounouchi raged, the insult hitting a familiar mark. " You're the one that kidnapped _me_ for information and then call me a _DOG_?!!"

" You have quite a bark to you, but no bite," Seto went on. " Surprising that you're a result of the Experiment at all."

" You…" Jou growled, ready to fry the other boy to a crisp whether he was at full strength or not.

" Down boy," Seto told him. " Keep that up and you're enjoying a nice time-out in a freezer. Now, I am willing to make you an offer, seeing as your 'secret' cannot be found out and neither can my own."

" What?" Jou's anger died down in confusion. First the guy kidnapped him, then demanded information, then insulted, and now he was trying to make a deal with him? Just who the _hell_ was this dude anyway? He had to be bipolar because the blonde couldn't come up with any other explanation for how he was acting.

" I am willing to offer you a 'deal of sorts'," Seto explained. " It will probably benefit us both in the end and you won't have to worry about the police after you for killing that man in the park like an order of filet mignon."

" Oh shit," he'd almost forgotten about that sick perverted excuse of a person. He knew then that the boy, Seto Kaiba, had him over a barrel and he didn't have a way out that he could see. " Okay, so let's hear this 'deal'." The brunette smirked at him and he wasn't sure if he was going to like this at all.

*****

Yami led Yugi out of the hospital and down the steps towards his car, making sure not to let go of the smaller boy's arm. The doctor had said that he would still be dizzy for a while and should be watched carefully. He wasn't about to let something happen to him as it was, but he took the doctor's warning to heart anyway.

" Thank you for coming to get me, Yami," Yugi repeated what he had already said three times so far since the other boy's arrival.

" Think nothing of it," Yami assured him _again_. " It was nothing."

" Okay," Yugi smiled at him. " You know, Ryou came to see me a short while before you got here. He seemed very preoccupied by something though and wouldn't tell me what."

" Would it have to do with his father?" Yami asked with concern in his tone. He walked his 'twin' to the other side of his car and opened the door to let him in. Yugi climbed in, moaning softly from the pain in his head from moving too fast. " Take it easy," Yami reminded him.

" Fine, but no, I don't think it had anything to do with his dad," Yugi replied. " I think it had to do with something right before he came to see me."

" Well, trust Ryou to be able to deal with things," Yami suggested as he got into the driver's seat. " He's tougher than most people think."

" I know," Yugi agreed.

" Oh," Yami remembered something a leaned back into the back seat of the car. He came back up with a package in his hands that he quickly dropped into Yugi's lap. The younger boy stared at it in confusion. "It was on your porch this morning and is addressed to you," Yami explained. " I thought I would bring it along for you."

" Oooh, it could that new puzzle Grandpa said he ordered for me!" Yugi exclaimed happily.

" Wait 'til we get to your house before you open it," Yami told him as he drove down the street. " You know you can wait."

" Yami," the other boy groaned, but then sighed in agreement. " But I still can't wait to open it!"

****

A/N: See? Another Item claimed. You just have to wait to see what else happens.

Kathrine: We like how everything came out in this chapter. We hope yall did too.

JC: Review and tell us if we're still keeping everyone in character. Marik's the only one we might not have done too good of a job with. But we'll fix that, you'll see. ^_~

Kathrine: Okay, we'll try to get another one out when we can, but we have LOTS of stories to update so just wait a bit. Bye for now!


	6. Chapter 6 Agreements and Puzzles

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A/N: WE'RE SO SOOOOORRRRRRYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Kathrine: We've had a terrible writer's block, family issues, personal issues, other stories, school, and now we're working on putting up a Website. Lots of distractions.

JC: But we finally got some inspiration for this after sleeping yesterday away so we wrote this up.

Kathrine: Don't know how bad the errors are, but it's nine in the morning and we've been writing since three.

JC: Lots of things happen in this chapter so I guess this one's important.

Kathrine: Yeah, so read on and enjoy!

JC: We do make up for the lack of Seto and Jou in the last chapter though. ^_^

Disclaimer: We don't own. Simple as that. We no own.

Warnings: Language, dark themes, blood. Not too much in here to worry about.

__

From within the Flames

By JC and Kathrine

****

Chapter 6 – Agreements and Puzzles

" Okay, so let's hear this _deal_," Jounouchi agreed warily. The brunette teen smirked at him and he wasn't sure if he was going to like this at all.

" First things first," Seto countered as he walked around the edge of the oak desk and sat down. " Tell me why you're running from Them. What do they want from you and how much do you actually know?"

" I'm running because they want me," the blonde replied. " They want me because of what I am, because of you are too. And I know enough to know that Six Families were given a drug that was 'supposed' to prevent pregnancy things like morning sickness, cravings, and disorders that might cause problems when giving birth. I know enough to know that every other child born was 'supposed' to either be normal or have some disorder that came as a test defect. I was 'supposed' to be the only positive result." Only that wasn't possible because Seto had abilities that he knew came from the same experiment. " But I guess I was wrong about that."

" I guess you were," the brunette agreed. He wasn't going to tell the other teen that no one actually _knew_ that he was one of the Children. From what most knew, his entire family was dead. " But at least that shows that you will be of use to me."

" _What?_" Jounouchi's eyes widened slightly. " Of _use_ to you? I am not some kind of _tool_ that you can just pick up, use whenever you want, and then drop when your done with it! What the _hells_ is wrong with you?! Can't you even _act_ slightly human?!"

" I am not human," Seto retorted immediately. " We were created by Kaiba Corporation to be at a level higher than that of _humans_. Don't ever say I am one of _them._"

" Gods, what the hell is up with you?!" Jou couldn't stand having to be around this guy. He had to be the most IRRITATING person alive! He just HAD to be a Kaiba! There was no other explanation as to why the blonde wanted to turn the brunette into filet mignon. _Either that or They weren't kidding when they said that Fire would hate water not matter what form,_ he thought for a moment. _It is my opposite so I hate it._

" You truly are a mongrel," the other teen smirked. " You jump to your emotions without thinking, act tough, show your fangs, and yet you're really just a scared little puppy hiding from Them until you have actually grown enough to face them. Poor little mutt, can't be human and don't have the balls to be above them."

" I am NOT a _DOG_!!!!" the blonde snarled, acting very much like the enraged version of said animal without realizing it. " You have no right to call me that all because you think you're better than everyone else!"

" That is because I _am_ better than everyone else," the other replied. " You're problem is that you don't know how to harbor the power you've been given. You still weaken yourself by using your abilities. You don't even know how to ration your energy."

" Well _excuse me,_ if my power doesn't have its own battery pack!" he snapped.

" I could very well teach you how to use your power properly," Seto told him.

" Whatever, I've had enough training to last me three lifetimes," Jounouchi declined. " What the hell would you want to teach me anything anyway? I can tell you're not the generous type that just helps people out of the good of his ice cold heart."

" It all pertains to the proposition I mentioned earlier," he explained. " You need to stay out of sight, away from Them, correct? Well, I propose that you remain here with me?"

" Nani?" Jou's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider. _Yep, definitely bipolar,_ was his first thought. Why else would this guy that doesn't seem to like him (or anyone else for that matter) too well offer to let him stay in his home. He just knew there had to be something to it. " What do you want from me? There has to be a catch."

" I only require your cooperation and would prefer not to take it by force," the brunette put it very bluntly. " I wouldn't be sure of your intentions if I had to _make_ you assist me."

" _Make_ me?" Jou repeated in confusion. " You can't make me _do_ anything."

" Yes I could," Seto told him with a smirk. " I have my ways. Believe me, they're very 'effective'."

" So you think you can scare me into doing whatever you want?" Jou's eyes cut into dark slits. " I don't even KNOW you, let alone like you from what I've seen of you."

" I'm not going to pretend to be a 'likable' person," Seto told him. " I only see you as a way to further my own ambitions. If I'd left you there on the street you'd probably be in shock after burning that person, or what had been a person, to death."

Jou's eyes widened as he remembered about the man that he had turned to charcoal in the park. He didn't care that he had killed him, he'd been a pervert and possibly forced himself upon countless others before meeting his burning end at the hands of the blonde. And it wasn't like he hadn't killed anyone before. The only question was could it be traced back to him if They found him before the local authorities.

__

Of COURSE they'll find a corpse burned beyond recognition! he wanted to slap himself. _That's what they're looking for! My additional training doesn't count for human flesh, I can't heal things like that. I'm so dead!_ But then he looked at Kaiba who sat in front of him impassively. _And all I have to do is say 'yeah' to him and he'll make sure that no one finds out. But what could he want with me? Damnit, I'm so screwed._

" I'm not a patient person Mr. Katsuya," the brunette frowned. " It's not really a hard predicament to get out of. You agree to remain here and assist me in what I'm planning to do and in return They will not find out your location and the sad excuse for police will never find you either."

" But what are you up to anyway?" the blonde questioned. " If you're anything like ya Pops I'd be better off with Them or the police anyway!"

Seto's eyes grew cold and Jounouchi could easily tell that the temperature in the room had dropped, and not by accident. " I'm nothing like Gozuborou," he stated evenly, though the anger could be read clearly. " I will never be anything like him, I would never do this to my son. Remember that before you compare us again."

" Fine, fine," Jou put his hands in the air to signal defeat. " Just quit messing with the heat. So you're not planning on taking over the world or anything, got ya."

" As for my plans," the brunette went on. " I merely want revenge for what was done to me. I want Them to pay for their crimes my way because the authorities are too stupid to even realize what is going on, let alone give 'proper' punishment."

" Please, half the government is being paid off anyway, and you know that if you know as much as you think you do," Jou snorted.

" Oh I am very aware of that," Seto smirked. " And whoever is collaborating with Them with feel my wrath as well. The question is, will you stand with Them or with me? Or will you run from what's coming, hiding in the shadows made by your own flames until your too weak to go on or are backed into a corner?"

" I don't run from nobody!" Jou growled. " I just want a fucking normal life for once! I just want Them to leave me alone and let me the hell be. I don't want to be part of a war to take over the world and I DON'T want to be hunted for the rest of my existence."

" But you cannot run, they will find you no matter where you go," Seto countered. " You surely cannot believe that They will ever let you lead a 'normal' life. You're not even really human, how can you expect to live in a world meant for them?"

" Because I _am_ human!" the blonde snapped. " I might not be just like them but no two people are a like in the first place! I didn't ask for this, I doubt anyone would!"

" More of a reason for you to side with me," Kaiba pushed the main subject. " Take your revenge and make them pay for what they've done to you and countless others." He truly didn't care about the others that were affected by Them. He just wanted revenge for what They had done to him and his brother and he _would_ have his revenge, with or without this mutt before him.

Jou thought about what the brunette had said for a moment before lowering his head slightly in defeat. " It's not really like I've got a choice, is it?" Jou finally sighed. " The lesser of two evils, right? At least if I stick with you I don't end up as a guinea pig for anymore experiments." Then he smirked. " And hey, if your scheme fails than I can at least take a big piece out of Their asses before I go down."

" My plan will not fail," Seto stated not as an assurance, but as a certainty. Then he stood and head away from the desk towards the door. " Open."

" Yes Mr. Kaiba," a voice entered the room that sounded slightly robotic, but cheery at the same time. Jou watched as the door opened as the brunette had commanded.

" What is that?" Jou asked in a wary tone, but Kaiba was already gone. " Hey wait for me!" He shook off his confusion and hurried off after the other boy thinking, _I REALLY hope I didn't get into some real deep shit here._

*****

" Marik?" Malik could tell that his koibito was very weak because of whatever had happened to him. But he could rid himself of the shock of what was happening. How could he have the golden rod in his hand if Marik also held one in his own? It just didn't make sense. That's when a low cry caught his attention.

Marik was confused and dizzy. Everything seemed to be moving very fast and he couldn't slow it down. He'd always hated these type of rides at carnivals and now it was even worse because he was lying down. But that's when he felt the burning pain in his back as if someone was cutting into it with a heated blade. He cried out digging his free hand into the carpeted floor, but the other remained grasping the strange scepter. He couldn't seem to get it to let go.

" What's wrong? Are you all right?" Malik asked in worry. Marik didn't answer him, his the feeling of the pain shifting across his back, spreading through his entire body. He'd never felt pain like this, like someone was trying to carve into him but the knife wouldn't go down far enough. It hurt so much, he couldn't take it.

" Marik, say something, please!" Mali was becoming frantic and yet he couldn't do or say anything that would put him at ease. He didn't know what was happening to himself and the pain was only getting worse.

" I-I-It's m-my b-b-back-ck," he ground out, his eyes clenching as a small tear fell down his cheek. He couldn't take the pain and that's when darkness claimed him.

Malik watched as his lover fell into unconsciousness and became limp in his arms. _Oh no!_ " Marik!" he shook him, but pulled back with he felt something wet and sticky on his hand. It was blood from his lower back that had squeezed through the sleeveless shirt he wore. " Oh Ra…"

He looked about for a knife, trying to find something so he could cut the shirt away from Marik's body, but couldn't. That's when he noticed the rod in his hand was now in the form of a blade, the hilt the large winged Eye of Horus. Not even thinking about it, he lifted up the shirt, cutting it jaggedly seeing as Marik lay on his side. The sharp dagger cut through the material with great ease. He moved the pieces of cloth away from his lover's body and stared in complete shock. " No…Oh Ra no…this is impossible…"

Scriptures, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were carved into the other blonde's back, the outlines still bloody. _This can't be…_he thought frantically. _This…this is what Father carved into MY back. But that was six years ago…_

He felt warmth and turned towards it. It was the rod he held, now back into it's original form and glowing gently. A chime was heard and he knew it came from the rod his koi held. The two Items were glowing in sync with each other and chiming as if reacting to its opposite's close proximity. He didn't know what was going on a dropped the rod he held immediately. The glowing stopped and the sounds as well, everything becoming silent.

__

What do I do? Malik questioned himself. He had no idea what had happened and how there were two rods, let alone how Marik had one. From what he knew the Rod had been I his family for millennia and there was only one, definitely not TWO. Then how had Marik gotten a complete duplicate? How had the very scar that haunted him appear on his lover's back as well? And why had the two rods reacted to each other like that?

" I n-need Isis," he told himself. " Sh-She'll kn-know what's g-going on."

He looked down at Marik again, not sure if he could move his love from where he lay with his head in his lap. He didn't want to leave him there alone, not knowing what could happen if he left his side. _I HAVE to call Isis, but the phone is on the other side of the couch!_ He thought before shouted out loud. " Damnit I need the phone!"

A quiet clatter was heard and he looked down, the phone lying next to him on the ground. " Yes!" he picked it up and started dialing. _I must have left it on the couch and it felt off,_ he thought absently. He listened to the ring and waited. His sister would know if was him from the caller id on her cell-phone. He just hoped she'd kept it with her and hadn't forgot it at the hotel while she was visiting or something.

{ " What is wrong Malik?" a low female voice finally answered. " What has happened?" }

" I-I don't know," the blonde started. " I-I went i-into Father's room and…"

{ " Oh Ra…" interrupted him from the phone. " It's started." }

" S-started?" Malik was confused now. " What are you talking about? Marik's hurt Isis and he's got…"

{ " I know little brother," she cut him off again. " I'm sorry I was not there to help you with this. I am coming home right now. Call Marik's brother, he will help you." }

" Isis?" Malik didn't understand. " What's going on? What do you know about what's happening? Please Isis, tell me! Marik's…"

{ " Call down," his sister told him. " Just call Rashid, he will be there with you until I return." With that she hung up the line. }

__

What is she not telling me? he wondered. _What are we being left out of?_ He forced himself to push the questions out of his mind. He had to call Rashid and get Marik help. He could think about everything later when he knew that his lover would be all right.

*****

" Yugi," Yami nudged the smaller boy who had dozed off during the fifteen-minute ride home from the hospital.

" Eh?" deep violet eyes open and peered out sleepily. " Home already?"

" It's not that long of a drive," the taller boy laughed. " You're just really tired."

" You try getting woke up every time you try to sleep because the doctors and nurses don't want you lapsing into a coma," the other boy frowned. " They did it all night too because they thought I was a risk being so little for my age."

" Well…" Yami started.

" Shut up," Yugi snapped before he could get any further. " I'm know I'm short, but you're not to tall yourself either."

" Yes, but I'm only two or three inches under the average height not two feet," Yami couldn't help but mention.

" Oooh," Yugi huffed, pouting in a way no one, especially Yami, could deny was absolutely cute. " Leave me alone, Yami." He turned away from the other boy and stomped towards his home, the Kame Game Shop. It wasn't that he was actually _mad_, he just liked seeing Yami squirm when he tried to apologize. He was very cute when he was floundering like that.

" Oh come on Yugi," Yami followed him. " You know I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." 

__

This is just too easy, the smaller boy thought as he stopped walking. " But you know I don't like it when you make fun of how short I am," he pointed out in a irritated tone.

" I know and I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had gone to far," Yami turned him around, a pleading look in his eyes. " Please forgive me."

" Well…" Yugi cut his eyes as if he was about to push him away. " Okay!" His glare broke into a smile as he hugged the bigger boy and let out a small giggle.

" What?" Yami's eyes blinked in confusion. _I fell for it again!_ He realized. " Why you…" But Yugi was already gone, the door unlocked and then shut in his face.

" Bye Yami!" he heard as he saw the tri-color-haired boy waving at him from the lowest window in the door.

" I'll never get how he does that to me," the other boy mumbled to himself. Then he remembered something. " Yugi, did you remember your package?" he called through the door.

Suddenly, it was thrown open and a small blur rushed out. " I almost forgot!" Yugi hurried over to his friend's car and got the package from the front passenger seat. " Thanks Yami!" He hugged the older boy again before going back to his open door. " Want to come in?"

" No, I want to study again for the exam in Ancient World History we have tomorrow," the other boy declined. " If not Malik just _might_ get the highest score, emphasis on the word 'might'."

" I swear you two are very strange," Yugi chuckled. " Who else uses Ancient History as a competition?"

" It's just something we're both interested in and refuse to be second best," Yami smirked. " But someone has to be second best one way or another."

" Whatever, that's why all you've ever done is get the same scores all year," Yugi countered.

" And this will be the chance for me to win," Yami pointed out as he walked around the edge of his car and opened the driver's side door. " I will call later, ja ne!" He then got in and drove off, leaving the smaller boy on his doorstep. Yugi watched him leave an almost dreamy look in his eyes.

That's when he remembered the parcel in his hands and smiled. " Now I can open it!" he hurried into the shop and shut the door, locking it behind him. He made sure that the 'Closed' sign was in place and hadn't fallen down before walking behind the counter and into the corridor. At the end of the hall was the stairs leading to the upstairs apartment where he and his grandfather lived together since his parents' deaths.

As he ascended the stairs, he thought of his parents. They'd died a little after his eleventh birthday while taking the money his grandfather had collected from the shop that week to the bank. They agreed to go because Grandfather had been teaching Yugi new tricks for the main game that was sold at the shop, Duel Monsters. They hadn't realized they'd be the victims in a bank heist that would cost three lives that day, the final one being a well-respected officer, Kage Kytsune.

He opened the door at the top of the stairs and leaned against it. He missed his parents deeply, the loneliness of not having them around always with him even when he was having the best time with his friends. He and them were supposed to go on an archaeological dig with an old friend of his grandfather's that summer vacation. They were going to Egypt. His grandfather had offered to take him still, but he couldn't do it knowing that was the last plan they'd had together. It just wouldn't be the same.

He shut the door behind him slowly and walked into the somewhat specious living room, sitting down on the couch. He could feel the depression creeping up on him, but he refused to acknowledge it. _I shouldn't be feeling sorry for myself,_ he thought. _I've still got Grandpa. And I've got my friends, some people don't have anyone._

A low jingling thump caught his attention and he noticed he let go of the package he'd been holding, allowing it to fall to the floor. " Oh yeah!" he started to smile again. " I can't wait to see what type of puzzle he got me!" He dug his little fingers into the one side of the tape, pulling forward and ripping it away from the box itself. He let it fall to the floor as he pulled off the other piece and finally opened the flaps.

Inside was quite a bit of styrofoam filling but he just moved that out of the way until he came to his main prize. " Wow," he stared in awe at what he believed to be a golden case. On the case was a symbolic eye that he had earned about in History class. " This must be some really cool Egyptian puzzle!"

He lifted the box from inside the mess of green and white, moving the other and setting it on the table. Looking at it he noticed that there wasn't a special lock or key that needed to be used to open it so he merely lifted the lid. " Woah," he gasped in shock. Inside the case was many small fragmented pieces of gold, each different. At the tope was a golden piece different than the others with the same eye on it that was on the lid to the box. He noticed a string and pulled on it, shifting pieces as it removed was looked to be the base of the puzzle from the chest.

__

But what is the puzzle supposed to be? he wondered. He looked about the chest and then in the packaging, hoping for a clue. At the bottom of the cardboard box was a white sheet of paper. " Got it!" he smiled. He unfolded the paper and stared at the it in confusion. Drawn on it was a three-dimensional pyramid with the Eye puzzle piece in the center. _But…?_ What Yugi couldn't figure out was why the puzzle was drawn upside down, the fragment with the string on the bottom of the pyramid.

" That's weird," he mumbled. " But I guess it's cooler that way." He rubbed his hands together with a determined look in his eyes. " Now let's see how long it takes me to get this baby put together. Maybe I can have it ready for when Ojii-chan comes home in a few days."

*****

" The operation was a great success!" the doctor smiled.

" That's great!" Mokuba jumped up and down in happiness. He turned to Mai and hugged her. " Serenity will be able to see! She won't have to go blind!"

" Calm down kid!" Mai laughed. " No more caffeine for you!"

" The bandages will have to stay on until tomorrow night at the earliest and Wednesday at the latest," the doctor told them. " And that's only if she isn't ready to take them off or we find out that something may have gone wrong."

" What could have gone wrong?" Mokuba's happy attitude was beginning to wane and a more serious tone emerging.

" If the immune system rejects the optic implant that may cause a problem," he explained. " But still, we should know by tomorrow night."

" But everything should have gone as planned?" Mokuba wanted assurance that Serenity would be all right.

" Yes, Mr. Kaiba," the doctor agreed. He could see the boy's brother's influence coming through at that moment and only hoped he would never have to meet the elder Kaiba face to face.

" Good," the raven-haired boy grinned.

" See kid, nothing to worry about," Mai ruffled his hair.

" Don't do that," he frowned and he shook his hand away. " C'mon, let's go see Ren, she probably needs someone to talk to right now."

" You go ahead," she told him. " I need to call Mom. She's been at work so she couldn't get here in time and she'll definitely want to know how everything went."

" Okay," he agreed before turning towards the doctor again.

" Room 320 in the Recovery Ward," he told him before the young boy took off down the hall. " No running!"

"Whatever!" was the reply he got.

" Such a sprightly child," he commented.

" Yeah, he and Serenity have been best friends since they met," Mai sighed. " They're like paper and glue, always sticking together."

" Well, I better go check on my other patients, you take care," he nodded to her before heading on his way.

" See ya Doc," she returned. Than she headed towards the door to outside, knowing she couldn't use her cell-phone indoors. _Mom will be ecstatic, _she thought. _But what will she say when I tell her that Serenity's worried crazy about her brother again? We keep trying, but they won't tell us where he is. It's like they don't want us to know._

" Either way, I told Serenity we'd look for him and I don't go back on my word," she stated firmly. " We'll just have to try a different approach."

*****

" It's begun, everything has started."

" I know."

" But I did not believe it would begin to soon. My necklace only told me what would happen, not when."

" That was all you were meant to know, not everything is set in stone. Something must have set it off."

" I have to return home."

" Yes, you will in deed be needed for this battle."

" But will you be returning with me? Your role in this is already cast."

" That depends on how the winds of this future blows. Not all Items are in play." 

" I see. But only two more must be received."

" And that is when I shall come for that is when I am needed."

" All right, until then farewell."

" No, it is only until we see each other again and I know that will be very soon."

****

A/N: How was that for such a long wait? We're really trying to fix that.

JC: Sorry again about that.

Kathrine: The little conversation was last minute thinking. We don't know how that got in there.

JC: So just review and tell us what ya think. If we're doing something wrong feel free to tell us that too.

Kathrine: Yes, Rashid is going to be in the next chapter. Don't think we forgot about him.

JC: We've been doing some over looking and we just might bag the Siennen Earrings bit. It's getting complicated now. We'll tell ya when we do.

Kathrine: And as we mentioned at the beginning, we're working on a Website. It's taking a bit of doing so that's what has been taking up of our time lately.

JC: It's not ready yet, but we'll tell ya when it is. Ja for now. ^_^


	7. Chapter 7 Memories and Darkness

****

A/N: UPDATE!!!!!!! ^_^

Kathrine: This should have been ready yesterday, but we ended up getting sick.

JC: Oh well, we still put a lot of work into it and we hope that it was worth your wait.

Kathrine: We're rather put out. If you haven't been on AdultFanfiction.Net, or you just didn't check the previous post, you don't know that our mom cut off the cable. She said it was distracting us from schoolwork. We aren't even the ones with bad grades. (growls)

JC: So we're mad about that and took it out on some of our favorite characters. Unfortunately, Jou's point in the story is angst and torture safe for the moment so we took it out on another 'lovable' blonde.

Kathrine: And we have a real twist in the story that we don't think ANY of you are expecting.

JC: Make that a few twists.

Kathrine: Lots of things happening and we won't even give ya a hint.

JC: Now, enjoy. ^_^ We know we did.

Disclaimer: NO own. We can't even watch it on TV anymore. !_!

Warnings: Dark themes, painful flashbacks for children, Implied NCS, Implied Abuse, Cliffhanger. Have fun. Not for young children. LET THE DARKNESS REIGN!!!!

__

From within the Flames

By Kathrine and JC

****

Chapter 7 – Memories and Darkness

" Rashid!" he exclaimed in anxious relief. He rushed to the doorway and hugged the older man immediately.

" Where is he?" was the first question from the nearly bald man's lips.

" Over there," he pointed to the inert figure he'd managed to pull onto the couch. The floor was still sticky with blood in front of it, but he was too rattled to even think of cleaning it up. His lover's brother nodded and moved instantly to the unconscious blonde's side. His eyes widened slightly at the angry marks that donned his younger sibling's back.

" Oh Marik…" he murmured.

" You're going to help him right?" Malik was practically hysterical.

" Go get some bandages from the bathroom and antiseptic," He told him in a formal and apathetic voice. Malik stared at him in shock for a moment. How could he not be upset over Marik being hurt? But he looked at him from the side of his face and could see the concern and worry in there.

__

He's just as worried as I am, he realized. " All right," he spoke before hurrying off to get what was requested of him.

Rashid watched him go and slowly kneeled down next to his brother. He had to remain calm and in control, no matter how much he wanted to lose said control at the sight of the damage done. _But Isis warned me of something like this happening,_ he remembered. _But she said no one could prevent this either. _" Don't worry 'Master'," he assured him. " Everything will be fine."

" Rashid?" dry lips moved of their own accord, a face suddenly twisting in pain. Lavender eyes fluttered slightly before opening to stare into blue. " Why-My back…!" The words transformed into a whimper of pain. " Gods, wha…"

" Calm down," the other told him. " You need to remain still or the pain will only become greater."

" Rashid…Malik…where…?" but the lavender eyes were quickly dimming. He was losing consciousness rapidly and Rashid was rather glad for that. It would work better if the younger teen wasn't awake for the entire process.

" He's fine, just rest for now," he soothed him. Marik stared blankly at him before he finally lost his battle with the darkness that enveloped him.

" I found it!" Malik took that moment to rush into the room, washcloths and a small container of water in his hands as well as what he'd originally been asked for.

" We best hurry or the dried blood will be harder to clean from his body," Rashid took the supplies and set them out.

" I-I don't know how this happened!" Malik's voice was shaken. " The hieroglyphs are the same…they're the same as the ones on _my_ back."

" There is a reason for this," dark-haired man replied. " Something's are meant to be."

" But why?!" the blonde demanded. " Why is this happening to him? Is it because it happened to me? It's all those damn rods' fault!"

" Rods?" Rashid turned away from cleansing him brother's back and stared at him. " What 'rods' are you talking about?"

" Those!" he pointed to the previously unnoticed golden items that had been shoved under the coffee table. The man's eyes widened in shock at the sight of the two identical scepters with the Eye of Horus as their emblem.

" One of those things did something to Marik!" Malik accused. " I don't know how he got one! I found mine years ago!"

Rashid filed away that information and turned back to his brother's side. " We shall wait until Isis returns to worry about those 'items'," he replied. " Now 'Master' Marik is our main concern."

" You still call him that? He _hates_ it," the blonde reminded him. Long ago Rashid had started calling his younger brother that after a game of pretend gone awry. Marik wanted his older brother to pretend to be his servant for the day, only didn't take to well to be called Master every time his brother spoke to him. It made him feel as if he wasn't just playing a game and Rashid purposely doted on him the entire day because of it. He refused to even let the poor child brush his own teeth or put on his own clothes. The four-year old Marik had sworn never to play pretend like that again as long as he could still be 'grown up'.

Rashid smiled at the memory. It was one of the few he and Marik still had to remember. It was before their mother had disappeared and their father had been sent away. He reached up and touched the markings that were etched into the side of his face. _Things will become much harder for you now dear brother,_ he thought sadly. _But at least you have someone like Malik who shall be there to help you through it._

*****

The world moved by quickly, the scenery changing as the car sped down the highway. " Where are we going?" Jounouchi repeated his question. He'd asked that twice since they'd gotten into the car. Kaiba had practically threatened him into entering the vehicle in the first place. They'd left the Kaiba mansion behind over a half an hour ago, but he had barely seen any of it. The brunette had directed him straight through the corridor and down another one that led from the room to the car garage on the estate. Ironically enough, the same thought kept coming to him. 

__

He's dragging me around like a dog on a leash or something, he blonde frowned to himself. _I really wish I understood why I agreed to this in the first place._ Suddenly, they turned off of the highway onto a dirt road leading into the woods. _I don't like this._ The road seemed rather twisted with the way they wound around so many different trees and forestry. He couldn't even tell where they were going seeing as there were more than one dirt road between more than one intersections. _How the hell can there be so many different roads in the middle of the woods?_ But then remember who was driving the car he was in.

Seto on the other hand wasn't really thinking. He'd done quite a bit of that the night before and while in the sanctity of his own home. He knew what he was doing and what he wanted so all he had to do was act on it and everything would go according to plan. He caught the sight of a small tree that was bent over backward, irregular, but mostly plain enough to blend in with the sounding area. _We're here_, he smirked.

He pulled into the grass beside the tree and stopped the car. " Where are we?" Jou inquired. " What are we doing out in the middle of the backwoods?"

" You'll see," Kaiba told him before tapping the small Kaiba Corp. emblem on the collar of his trench coat. " Open up Arin."

Yes Kaiba-sama the blonde heard a feminine voice reply in the car speakers. What about your guest? He looked around but couldn't understand where the voice had come from. Who was this 'Arin' Kaiba was talking to?

" He's here for the new project," Kaiba answered in a somewhat stony tone. He hated to be questioned for his decisions.

You don't have to be cranky about it she huffed almost.

" Just do it," Kaiba growled.

Whatever the voice replied before everything around them began to shake. Jou's eyes widened in fear.

" It's an earthquake!" he exclaimed. " We have to get outta the car!"

" Oh shut up you whimpering mutt," Seto frowned. " Just control yourself, if that's possible, and you'll see."

" Why you arroga-!" the blonde's words were cut off by the feeling of the ground below his sinking. He watched in shock as the forest seemed to rise above them…or would it be that they descended below it? Darkness followed them even when the sun was shinning outside. The car disappeared and the ground seemed as if it had never been touched. If anyone were to have seen the event they would have believed the forest swallowed the car and its passengers whole. The only thing that seemed out of place was the strange swaying of the bent tree's branches.

*****

__

/ " Ohayoo Papa!" he greeted his father as he practically skipped up the small walk to their house. He stopped during his merry run, confused for a moment. His papa didn't even say anything to him, merely got into the car and drove away. He shrugged and went on his way. His father was like that a lot lately. He was always in a rush to do something and forgetting to say 'hi' or 'goodbye'.

He hurried into the house as fast as he could. He was so happy to be coming from his first day of school. He had to see his brother and tell him about it. " Rashid!" he called out. " Brother, I'm home! It was so great! 'Lik and I were even in the same class as Kura! And Kura's dad was there talking about police stuff and…" His words died away when he noticed something. Rashid wasn't answering him.

" Rashid?" he shouted out into the house, his voice echoing slightly. " Onii-san!!! Rashie, where are you?"

He didn't hear anything. He looked around, but couldn't find him. He finally ran up the stairs, leaving his coat and bookbag on the living room couch, and knocked on his brother's bedroom door. No one answered, so he opened it anyway. " Rashid?" he called into the room. A small gasp was heard as he turned on the light.

" Onii-" his words caught in his throat. There was dark red all over the floor. It smeared the creamy tan carpet and changed it to a burnt brown-looking color. But his eyes were still locked on the figure on the bed, body twisted in stained white sheets. One eye was half-closed and somewhat wet and shiny as it stared him, the other shut and covered by the wet and sticky reddish stuff. Taking a closer look he realized it was the stuff that came out when he cut himself or scrapped his knee, Blood.

" M-mar-rik…" his brother whispered as his eye opened more.

" R-Rashid?" the blonde was practically in shock. " Y-You're hurt…"

" It's all right Marik," the older boy assured him, as he forced himself to move, limbs shaking. " Go play little Master."

" But your face…what's wrong with it? You look hurt really bad," Marik didn't want to leave his brother's side. It was obvious that something bad had happened to him and he didn't know what to do. " Papa just left, does he know you're hurt?"

Rashid didn't say anything. He looked away at the mere mention of their father. " Rashie?" the young child waited for an answer. His brother didn't say anything, he tried to move off the bed, only to be crippled by pain as if he'd hurt his back. " Onii-san!" Marik rushed to his side. " You need a doctor! Momma always said doctors make it to where you don't hurt no more."

" I'm all right," Rashid spoke in a sterner voice.

" But you're face has that blood stuff all over it and your eye's stuck shut and it looks like you got a tattoo on you cheek and…" the blonde was forced to stop so he could take a breath. " See? You need a doctor! And we have to call Papa and tell him!" He didn't miss the shudder that went through his brother's body at that statement. It made him think of something.

" Is Papa the one that hurt you?" he asked in a small voice. Rashid's one good eye stared at him in shock. " He the one that hurt you so bad?" The blonde almost didn't want to think of the possibility, but ever since Momma had come up missing Papa had been a lot meaner to his older brother. He thought it had to do with the fact that his Papa always said that he wasn't Rashid's real papa and that he was adopted or something.

" Marik," Rashid spoke.

" Did he?" the little boy repeated. Before his older brother could say anything his eye seemed to roll backward before the teen collapsed on the floor. " No!" Tears came to Marik's eyes and he kneeled next to his brother's form. " Rashie get up! Please, you're not that hurt! You can get up!" He was really afraid. Why wouldn't his brother get up?

" I have to get a doctor!" But how was he supposed to get one? But then he remembered what they had learned at school that day from Kura's dad. " He said to call 9-1-1!"** (A/N: We know it's not 9-1-1, but work with us here! It's AU!)**

__

He looked up instantly and stared at the phone that was on the nightstand on the other side of his brother's bed. Without another thought he climbed on the bed and scurried across it to the telephone. He grabbed the phone with one hand and used the other to dial the emergency phone number. He suddenly noticed the sticky feeling on his fingers and palm and looked down at it. He almost thought it was blood because of it being smelly and sticky, but whatever it was wasn't red.

{ " Hello, this is emergency medical and police," a calm feminine voice answered. " What is the urgency?" }

" My big brother's hurt really bad!" he cried into the phone. " He fell on the floor and won't get up! He's got blood all over his face and…!"

{ " It's okay kid," the woman told him. " Where are your parents? Are they home?" }

" Papa left when I came home and Rashid was in his room and there was blood and his face and he won't get up…" Marik startled to ramble on. He couldn't help it. Rashid always said that he talked a lot when he was excited or scared or upset or...

{ " Where do you live?" the woman asked, catching his attention. " I'll send an ambulance right away." }

" 3170 Jagu Street," Marik rattled off by memory. " But you gotta hurry! Rashid's hurt really bad and my friend Bakura's dad a police officer and he said that you're supposed to help him." The line was silent for a moment and he was afraid that she's hung up on him. " Hello, are you there? Please don't hang up, you're supposed to help Rashid!"

{ " I'm here," she assured him. " You're friend's father is a police officer? What's his name?" }

" Mr. Kytsune," Marik replied.

{ " Okay," she spoke. " Now you just keep an eye on you're brother and make sure that he doesn't start choking or anything all right?" }

" Okay, but his face looks really bad," Marik agreed. " I gotta go! Please just hurry!" He hung up the phone with the woman protesting. He didn't really care as long as they got here in time to help Rashid. He climbed back off the bed and sat down next to his brother. He slowly reached out and touched his bloody face. He couldn't stop the tears from falling down his cheeks anymore.

" Please be okay Rashie," he cried. " I don't want you to go away like Mommy and Birdie did. Birdie died and Mommy…" He started to cry even louder, his wails tuning out the loud sound of sirens as they neared. 

Suddenly, he was thrown into darkness, unable to see why or to stop it's proceeding. He looked around, but couldn't understand where he was. He wanted to go back to Rashid, to make sure he was okay. He wanted his best friends, Malik and Bakura, they always made him feel better. He wanted his Momma… Then the voices came.

****

" Leave him alone!"

" Don't touch me!"

" Stop it! You're hurting him!"

" Marik! Please help me, Marik! Make him stop!"

" I won't let you hurt him anymore!"

" NOOOO!!!!!!!!"

__

The scream seemed to pierce through his heart as the golden light blinded him. " No," he cried, hands going to his head. " I don't want to remember. I don't want to remember. It's all lies." The images came to him again. The blood, the pain-filled eyes of his friend, the stares that scared him to the bone. The he saw the gold glinting off the lighting, the Eye, the scream, the blood. He didn't want to remember. This wasn't how it happened. It was a lie. It hurt, the pain in his head and on his back. He couldn't stop it, couldn't make it go away. He wanted it to go away. He just wanted it to go away…/

*****

" Go away!" he screamed out before sitting up instantly, hands tightening in his hair from his attempts to pull the blonde strands out. Pain seared through his back and he fell backwards. This only caused more pain.

" It's okay Marik," Malik was by his side instantly. " Just turn over or you'll make it worse." He helped the other blonde to shift onto his back and let out a deep sigh. " It's much better this way, believe me."

" What happened little Master?" Marik's eyes shot over to where his brother was sitting.

" What happened? Why are you here Rashid?" he questioned.

" You're back will be painful for quite some time," the dark-haired man stated, not getting into what had occurred. " It will be best if I do not take you home and you don't go to school tomorrow." 

" We have exams tomorrow," Marik disagreed. " Unlike all my other schoolwork I actually care whether or not I pass these. If I don't I fail for the entire year."

" You can take them later on after you're better," Malik assured him. " It will give you extra time to study and you don't have to go to those stupid meetings that we were stuck in. It's not like you can get up anyway."

" What _happened_ to me?" Marik came back to his original question. Rashid said nothing and Malik looked almost nervous at his inquiry. " What are you telling me? Why does my back feel like someone took a carving knife to it or something?" This seemed to make Malik even more anxious. His eyes were turned away from him and staring far off at the same time. It was obvious that neither he nor his brother were going to tell him anything.

" Isis is on her way back to Japan," Rashid finally broke the pregnant silence. " She understands what is happening better than either of us do. She will explain it to both of you on her arrival."

" What do you even remember?" Malik asked. " Do you remember what happened before you passed out?"

The older blonde was silent, thinking. He couldn't remember. But then flashes came to his mind's eye again, gold, blood, pain, cries, fear. He let out a soft moan of distress at the overload of his own mind. He allowed his head to fall back down on the throw pillow it had been resting on. _It's not true,_ he told himself. _That was just a nightmare. That's not what happened. Father didn't…Rashid wasn't so…But then…_

" Little Master?" Rashid kneeled next to his younger sibling and stroked his hand gently through the other's hair much like he'd always done when Marik had been a child. " You should rest. The bandages on you're back need to been changed soon and it will hurt. You need to hold your strength."

Marik turned his tinted lavender eyes towards his brother, eyes boring into him. His vision then shifted to the markings that covered the right side of Rashid's face, the tattoo he for so long couldn't remember him getting. But now he did remember and no longer had the naïveté of his child self. _How could he hurt him like that?_ his inner voice growled angrily. _That _**bastard**_, how could he?_ He then thought of the other images he'd seen. They had to be true as well. _How could they hurt people they were supposed to love?_

It was strange, as if some darkness was settling inside his soul, feeding off of his anger. He didn't know whether or not he even wanted it gone. The greater it got, the less he could feel the pain, betrayal, and sadness that resided within him from his memories. " Marik?" Rashid brought him back to reality.

Slowly he reached out and lightly traced the scarred tissue of his brother's face. The symbols, hieroglyphs, meant something even if he didn't know what right then. His eyes turned towards Malik, who was staring at him in worry and confusion. He could feel the darkness recede, the pain returning. " I'm tired," he finally spoke, his voice full of the fatigue he felt.

" You need to rest, like Rashid said," Malik insisted. " We're here for you."

Now normally, Marik would protest anyone trying to 'be there' for him, even Malik and Rashid, but he was too tired to fight them. For some reason, the assurance that they were there, even if he didn't 'want' them to be, gave him a calming sense that cooled the rage he'd been feeling. He allowed this calm to wash over him, keeping the darkness he'd almost greeted at bay and letting a completely different darkness overcome him.

*****

" You're crazy!" Jou shouted at Kaiba as he gazed about at the elaborate set up. " Who else would stick a secret base underneath the ground in the middle of the woods by an national highway?" He knew that if you thought about it, it was actually a rather genius hiding place seeing as people used the woods for hunting all the time, but no one ever said anything about it. He was just pissed that Kaiba had scared the shit out of him like that and almost seemed to enjoy. _Bipolar psycho,_ he thought secretly.

Kaiba merely walked through the small amount of cars that were in the parking garage and into the corridor it opened up to, ignoring the blonde's rant. " Arin, open the 4th Ward," Seto spoke in his normal tone.

Yes Oh Master the woman Jounouchi had heard while in the car sounded very sarcastic. I am here to serve you. 

" You can be reprogrammed," the brunette warned, his irritation showing. He hated when 'she' got like this. Always had to show off around visitors.

Like to see ya try the woman laughed. It didn't work last time. 

" Who the hell are you talking to?" Jou finally demanded. " How can you reprogram a person?"

" 'Person'?" Kaiba repeated before letting out a half-amused laugh. " Of course it would take someone like you a while to realize anything."

" What's _that_ supposed to mean?" the smaller boy frowned. " Not realize what?"

" _Arin_, _A_rtificial _R_evolutionized _I_ntelligence _N_etwork," Seto stated.

" Nani?" Jou's eyes widened for a moment as he got what the brunette was implying. " You mean that she's a computer?"

I've been insulted! said voice cut in. How dare you compare me to a mere COMPUTER? 

" Gomen," Jou apologized immediately. " It's just like I thought you were some woman sitting in a control you or somethin'."

You've just redeemed yourself the voice laughed. Gods, Seto NEVER compliments me, it's always stupid machine this…I'll find a way to deprogram you that… 

" Arin," Seto growled a warning.

I get the message 'she' told him. This way to Ward 4. Just follow the yellow-lighted hallway. 

The dim lights of the corridors brightened, particularly the ones leading down the hall to their left. Kaiba turned down said hallway and Jou was quick to follow after him, wary of the entire situation. _But at least his computer seemed to bust his chops,_ the blonde smirked inwardly. _Seems like there actually _**IS**_ someone around here I could get along with._ They came to a large metal sliding door that 'evidently' had a _FOUR_ etched into it.

" Is HE here?" Seto asked out. Jou knew that he was talking to Arin, but who the 'he' the brunette was talking about.

He arrived an hour ago 'she' confirmed. He was wondering when you were going to show up. 

" I bet," the CEO of Kaiba Corp. snorted. 

" I warn you now Pup," Seto turned and gave him an evaluating glare. " You can't turn back now. You couldn't turn back when you first agreed. But from now on you have no other life beside what is here until I say otherwise."

" It's not like I had a life before hand," he snapped back. " Look, I said I'd work with you and I don't go back on my word, even if you did practically _blackmail_ me."

" Technicalities are pointless," Seto stated as the door slid open without a sound, save the air shifting. " Welcome, to _Extremus._"

" 'The end of'," Jou related the translation. He'd had a scientist for an adopted father, you learn Latin along the way after a while.

" The end of '_what_' is of your own choice," The brunette replied. They stepped into the room and Jou looked around. It seemed rather well put together in technology and organization, but he expected no less from a Kaiba.

" Surprise to see _you_ here," a voice caught him off guard. " But I knew I'd see you again sooner or later."

The blonde jumped and spun towards his left to stare into red eyes tinted with violet. " YOU!" he gasped. " I remember you!"

" Oh yes, one of very few who are here to help me with my work," Seto smirked. " But it seems have if you already know him."

" We never had a proper introduction," the shorter teen replied. " Hello…Jounouchi, wasn't it? My name if Shiai Yami, but Yami will do just fine."

****

A/N: See? Gotta love the cliffies.

JC: We never once said that Yami knew what was going on, but never once said that he DIDN'T either. ~_^

Kathrine: We just like him and Seto working together. Their fights are priceless.

JC: And you see what we did to poor Marik. Gotta love torture, mental and physical.

Kathrine: And if you we hope you got the point of the title of the chapter.

JC: If not, it's okay. Just review and tell us what you think. Things are about to get REAL interesting. ^_^

Kathrine: Oh and if you're wonderin'. Yes, Chibi Marik does call Rashid, 'Rashie'. It's not a typo.


	8. Chapter 8 Losses and Alliances

****

A/N: We've returned with the next installment of FwtF!

JC: We know we said we'd update one story a week, but we got hurt and then got hurt again and then had vacation where we spent most of our time cleaning.

Kathrine: But now we're trying to catch up before we go back to school next Monday.

JC: We're really trying to get the next chapter of 'Broken' out but it's just not being very cooperative.

Kathrine: Now this chapter starts out rather mean for one of our favorite demons. I actually loved it.

JC: Only because you got to kill someone.

Kathrine: Yes, character death indeed.

JC: And you get two new characters that I know a few of you have been waiting for.

Kathrine: And we pray that Anzu isn't too annoying in this chapter, we tried.

Disclaimer: See CH 1.

Warnings: Dark themes, character death, Angst and LOTS of it, Hopefully tolerable Anzu, and Character introductions

__

From within the Flames

By Kathrine and JC

****

Chapter 8 – Losses and Alliances

He felt so drained. It was like the energy he normally had was being taken from him by something else. He sat beside his mother's bed and watched her sleep. It wasn't very late, only about three in the afternoon actually. Usually he left around noon or one, but after their dispute, his mother had seemed weaker than was customary for after one of their 'disagreements'. It wasn't really an argument because he would always leave before it reached that level. He knew her weak heart couldn't take much more.

__

Then why do I continue to push her? He wondered. _She only wants what she believes is best for me and yet I continue to defy her._ He almost felt guilt at that, but refused to acknowledge it. _No, she is weak and believes in weak things in hopes they will help both her and me. She's too naïve to realize that everything is not the way that she pictures it to be. Why does she have to be so weak? Father was weak and look where it led him to, look where it has taken her. I will not be weak, I REFUSE to depend on others and allow them to rule my life. Only I can control myself._

" Kura?" he heard the faint, fatigued whisper of his name being called. Looking up, he met the deep hazel eyes that always seemed more green than brown. They were nothing like his own dark eyes that were closer to the color black than their actual chocolate brown at times. Her long hair that was usually so well cared for was limp on her shoulders, no longer shiny and silky to the touch, and bags were present beneath her eyes. He could tell that her time was indeed running out.

" Yes Mother?" he leaned forward and placed a hand on her arm. " What do you need?"

She gave him a small smile. She loved her son so much. It had been hard for them after his father had been killed and the deep hate and anger had been instilled within her child. He had always had a temper, but it was like he suddenly just lashed out at everyone, including herself at times. Only Marik and Malik were exceptions. Bakura had been so close to his father, idolized like any child would their paternal figure. Then he came home Marik's one day to find out that his loving parent was gone and there was no way of getting him back.

And now here she was, slowly losing her own battle for life. How could she soothe him and make him see that everything was going to be all right when it so obviously wasn't? She knew she was dying and that her end was soon approaching, maybe sooner than even she realized. Who would be there for him then? Her husband's family had disowned him for taking her as his wife, her own mother had died giving birth to her late younger brother when she was but a child herself. And it had been with her father's death just three years ago that Bakura had lost his last primary male figure in his life and had truly given up on everything.

" Oh Kura…" she murmured.

" What is wrong?" he asked her.

She reached over with her other hand and patted his that lay on her arm. Times when the person her son truly was showed himself were times she treasured. Her little Kura was still in there, just too afraid to come out. " Ai shiteru," she told him in her quiet tone, taking in a breath before she continued. " I love you very much. Even though I know that you are angry with me…and think me weak at times…I still love you. You are my son…and the son of your father…Kytsune Kage…never forget that."

" Why are you saying this?" he was trying to hide how worried he was, but she could see it. She felt very tired again, as if she was about to fall asleep within moments. Why did she feel this way?

" Just…never forget," she repeated. Suddenly she was assaulted by pain, as if her entire chest was on fire and she couldn't breathe. She sat up forcefully and clenched her hand in her gown. She needed to breathe, to get air into her lungs, but it was as if she couldn't even open her throat. Gasps were all she could manage.

" Mother!" Bakura jumped from his seat instantly. " Gods, no, not now!" He immediately pushed the button that was next to the bed and the heart monitor started to beep loudly. " No!" He turned his eyes back to her and watched her struggle to get air into her body. " Breathe! You're going to be fine!"

The door opened and two doctor rushed in with three nurses at their heels. One pushed his mother into a laying position while two of the nurses forcefully pulled him away. " NO!" he growled at them. " Get away from me!"

"They need the room to work," his mother's nurse, Shin, reasoned with him.

" Does it even matter?!" he shouted. " She has a 'Do Not Resuscitate' order and you know it!"

" But right now she's still alive," he replied. " Now stay back." He stood in the back of the room as the two doctors tried to keep his mother alive, unable to do anything to prevent it.

" We're need to do something!" the female doctor cried out. " We're losing her fast!"

" She stopped breathing!"

" CPR!"

" But we can't!" 

Silence fell than, the beeping from the heart monitor turned into one long consistent shrill. No one said anything and the doctors moved away from the bed. The male doctor down at the woman. " Call it," he said. " Kytsune Shinzoo dead at 3:21 PM."

Bakura was in shock. It was as if everything has just stopped for him. _No,_ he told himself. _This isn't happening, she's not dead._ But he couldn't deny it when Shin placed a hand on his shoulder that he could barely feel. He just stared at the limp, unfeeling body that was once the vessel of his mother. Hazel eyes were still open and seemed to be gazing right at him.

" We're sorry," the woman doctor (Hino Maika from what her tag read) gave him a saddened look. " We just couldn't save her."

" Get out," he ordered in a very low tone. " All of you. Get out."

" But…" she seemed reluctant to leave. Shin shook his head to disagreed with her. He knew better than to push it with the young Kytsune, especially right now. Slowly all five of them left the room, leaving him alone with his mother.

Steadily, he stalked towards the bed, almost afraid to do so, but at the same time compelled to it. He stood over it, looking down at his mother's prone form. Hesitantly, he reached out and touched her cheek. " You're still warm," he told her, mind not fully comprehending that she couldn't hear him. Everything was swirling around him, his entire mind in turmoil. He knew the truth and yet his heart wouldn't accept the realization.

" You were always weak," he suddenly stated. " Always trying to 'help' me, even though you knew of your condition. It took you four years to tell me and then it was too late. See what your weakness has done?" His mother's glazed eyes continued to simply stare at him. " Weak woman. Get up."

Still the figure on the bed did not move. "I said get up!" he commanded even louder. " Get up damn you! GET UP!" He kicked the bed, the wheels on it, causing it to slide across the room and hit the wall. The IVs that had still been in his mother's arms were pulled out and the drips knocked over. The body simply rolled from the forced of his assault and hit the wall with its back, the eyes still open and staring at him.

With that everything seemed to come to a halt once again. Bakura's eyes were wide at what he'd done. " Mother," he whispered. " I'm sorry." He backed up slightly, hitting the opposite wall within seconds and sliding down it to the floor. He continued to stare straight into the dead hazel eyes that were now so unfamiliar to him. The white-haired boy could do nothing else.

" Get up," he whispered barely audibly, even though it sounded so loud to his own ears. " Please…Mom…get up…" Outside a sudden storm raged on, covering the area and drenching it with rain and lightning, yet it went unnoticed by the white-haired boy within the room.

*****

" I take it you know one another?" Seto stared into the red eyes of his so-called 'partner'.

" I just met him yesterday!" Jou exclaimed. " And you're working with Kaiba?!" He sent a hand in the direction of the brunette. " Man I thought you were one of the good guys!"

Yami's brow raised in a curious fashion. " And by what do you mean 'the good guys'?" the tri-color-haired boy inquired.

Jou stared at him incredulously. " If ya working with him then ya can't be all that law-abidin'," he stated bluntly.

The shorter boy merely gave a dry chuckle at his words. " It all deals with what your perception of 'law-abiding' is," he explained. " I prefer to look at it as 'revenge long awaited'."

The blonde stared at him for a moment. " So you're just in it to get at Pegs too?" he spoke. " Why am I not surprised? But still, ya working with a _Kaiba_?"

" I'd hold your tongue Mutt," the brunette warned him. " I can still change our little 'arrangement' if you so see fit."

Jounouchi's eyes widened at the realization that he would indeed do so at his own whim. Kaiba still had him caught in his web and he could either hold him there for protection or cut him loose and let him plummet to his death. He _really_ didn't like the sound of the latter. " Fine, I get the message," he growled under his breath. Then he turned back to Yami. " How did you get into this anyway? Are you one of the CORX babies, too?"

" Core X?" Yami repeated.

" No he's not," Seto answered for him.

" What are you talking about?" the smaller teen inquired. " You mean the Experiment that Kaiba Corporation performed?"

Jou nodded, " Children Of the Revolution Experiment; CORE of ya take out 'the', but also known as CORX."

Seto only gave the blonde a cold stare. " You must have been the one to come up with that name," he stated. " And as I said, no he's not. Had he been, mutations and evolution stages would have already physically and visibly occurred."

" Or he could just be one of the normal ones," Jou pointed out. " Not every test group had visible results, practically _none_ of them had positive ones."

" I assure you I'm not part of the 'CORX' experiment from what I know of it," Yami replied. " My attachment to this 'counterattack' or sorts is merely for my own benefit."

" His assistance here is help not wanted nor needed," Seto frowned.

Jounouchi looked between the two and could see the tension there. It was obvious that neither teen had any affection for each other, no matter what type of affection it could be. From Kaiba's words he could figure out that he didn't want the tri-color-haired boy around at all. _But then why are they putting up with each other?_ He wondered. _They just…don't seem like two people who could stand to be in the same room with each other for very long._

" Why do you stay around each other if you don't want to?" Jou didn't understand. 

" Because we both have a common goal and I'd rather have him as part of my operations than as a rogue anomaly that could very well screw up everything I've worked for."

" I wanted revenge and he was a way to further my plans of getting it," Yami explained. " Pegasus had my parents killed and I want to know for what reasons and I want to kill him."

" Gods, you really need to wait your turn," Jou told him. " Do you know how many people have it out for him? Man, do you know how hard it is to GET to him? He's got the guard Croquet that could turn you into a human pretzel! And if you ain't got anything up your sleeves to throw at 'em than you might as well not even try!"

" I treasure your optimism," the other boy spoke sardonically. " And it's just the two of ya? What are ya going to do? Dye his hair and make him wear leather?"

Seto took this moment to grab the blonde by his throat and slam him into the nearest wall. " Your talk has become irritating," he warned. " I advise you to either shut up or you'll be thrown in with the waste disposal." Jou sneered at him before throwing a punch that would have connected with Kaiba's face had he not relinquished his hold a moment later. The blonde dropped to the ground and rubbed his offended throat soothingly.

" Look asshole," he started. " You brought me _against_ my will and then expect me to actually look 'forward' to working with you on a scheme to get back at one of the most powerful men in the world. Wait, he probably IS the most powerful. Well GOMEN, if I don't like the odds. _Especially_ when you two obviously don't like each other, and I sure as hell can't stand your cold-hearted, bipolar ass!"

Yami broke into a deep chuckle instantly. " Oh I like you," he laughed. " I think you and I will get along quite well."

" Keep it up Mutt and I can easily have you left somewhere for Them to find you," the brunette had about had enough.

" And I can just as easily spill about you and your little revenge gig you got going on," the blonde retorted.

Seto just gave him an amused expression. " Try it," he goaded. " They probably wouldn't believe you and I would _love_ to see what those bumbling fools could actually do to me when I hold their very careers and lifestyles in the palm of my hand."

" What?" Jou couldn't hide his confused stare. "If you control so much why don't you just fire them and ruin their lives that way?"

The look the Kaiba heir gave him was almost one of pity. " You truly are like a naïve puppy, aren't you?" he remarked, earning himself a glare. " To simply fire them would let them open to the fact that I have something against them. Then I wouldn't be able to exact the full extent of my means for them. No, I want to keep them nice and ignorant to the point that when everything comes to a head they will be unable to do anything, save suffer my wrath." 

With that he turned around and left the room with one final note. " Yami can show you around the complex and review protocol with you. I have far more important things to do."

" Geez, isn't he a bottle of sunshine," Jou mumbled. " More like a summer frost."

Yami gave another chuckle and shook his head. " Please, that was merely for show. You should see him when he's actually angry."

*****

Ryou was very bored. Even though he was used to being alone on the weekend when he had nothing else to do, he was still _very_ bored. Usually he was quite adjusted with his solitude, but for some reason today he felt completely the opposite. It was as if he was alone when he didn't have to be that way, as if someone was waiting for him and he had decided to remain home instead. The fact that the day looked quite cheery outside, with the sun shining and very few clouds in the sky, didn't help the situation.

It seemed then that the Gods decided to take pity on him for the phone that sat on the bedside table rang shrilly. He almost jumped at the unexpected noise and had to grab the headboard of his bed lest he fall of it to the floor. The phone continued to ring and he picked it up before whoever had decided to call could hang up. " Moshi Moshi, Bukaru residence?" he asked into it.

{ " Ryou, it's Anzu." } he smiled at the sound of is friend's voice.

" Ohayoo Anzu," he greeted. " What do you need?"

{ " Well I was wondering if you wanted to do something tonight," she explained. " You know, all of us get together?" }

" But we have school tomorrow," he reminded her.

{ " I know, so I worked with that in mind," she assured him. " We can all go out to get an early dinner at Burger World and then we can get in some extra studying so we d0on't fail the tests this week." }

Ryou could tell that something was wrong because of the earnest sound of the girl's voice. It was like she was trying to find a distraction, anything to occupy her mind. " What's wrong Anzu?" he asked her bluntly. " Is something troubling you? This couldn't have been the true reason that you called me."

A soft sigh was released on the other side of the line. { " You're right," she admitted. "It's about Mai." }

" What about Mai?" he asked, concern obvious. " Is she all right? How did Serenity's surgery go?"

{ " That's just it!" the girl exclaimed. " She hasn't called me for three days since they went to Kuhako for Serenity's operation! I'm worried that something could have happened, or gone wrong with the surgery, or that she just doesn't want to talk to me! And I knew you would be the best person to talk to about this, but I didn't know how to ask you…" }

The white-haired boy could have laughed if his friend had seemed so worried. Ever since Anzu had met Mai there had been something between them. She had always tried to act a little tougher, or dress a little less plain whenever she knew the blonde would be near. When Mai had been in the tenth grade and Anzu in the eighth the brunette had actually skipped school (her only time ever doing so) so she could watched the auditions for the high school play Mai was going out for. The only reason she hadn't gotten into serious trouble was because Mai had covered for her and took the blame.

But they had only been 'seeing' each other for about nine months and Anzu was always worried that Mai would either find some other more exciting and interesting girl or even some handsome, rich Romeo to sweep her off her feet. Two days without contact from Mai could easily leave her on the ropes. And Ryou knew that there was nothing behind it, just that Mai probably spent all of her time in the hospital with his sister and hadn't realized how long it had been since she'd last spoken to Anzu.

" Why don't you call the hospital?" he suggested. " Or you could even go to Kuhako tomorrow after school. That way you could check up on both Mai and Serenity. It's only thirty minutes away by bus. And you could catch the nine-thirty to be home in time to sleep for school."

There was silence on the other line for a moment. { " Maybe I could go see her," the brunette thought. " But what if she doesn't want me there? Or if something DID go wrong and Serenity's eyesight couldn't be saved. Poor Sere!" }

" Anzu, please calm down," Ryou told her. It was obvious that all of the fear had built up over the last few days. His friend had been worried from the beginning about how the outcome of the eye surgery would effect the young girl that she had looked at as a younger sister for so many years. Of course, she put on a brave face when Serenity was around and told her everything would be fine, but that could rid her of the fear of the possibility that something could go wrong.

{ " But what if…" }

Ryou halted her before she could get any further. " You have to go see her or you're going to get sick from worrying so much," he reasoned. " Everything could be fine and you'd end up in the hospital for emotional meltdown for absolutely no reason at all."

{ " You're right," she agreed, although not as convinced as he would like. " Who knows? She could call in the next five minutes and everything could be perfect." }

" Exactly," he smiled, though he knew she couldn't see. " Now please, promise me you won't worry so much. Just try to call her and if you can't, go to Kuhako."

{ " All right," she said. " Thank you so much Ryou, I knew I could count on you to make me feel better. I was acting like an idiot." }

" No, you're just worried and I understand that," he disagreed. " Now try to stay calm."

{ " I will," she told him. " Domo Arigato again! You're such a great friend." }

" My pleasure," he replied. " Anything I could do-" He words were cut off by a sudden pain in his chest. It felt as if something was cutting off his air supply and his entire body was frozen. It hurt, but not much of a physical pain, more like it was in his mind and manifesting in different physical ways. He could even feel strange emotions wavering within all the pain. Anger. Sorrow.

{ " Ryou? Ryou are you all right? Ryou?!" Anzu's worried voice continued to shout from the phone. { " Oh Ryou, please talk to me!" }

And then the pain was gone, vanished as if it had never been. He took in deep gasps of air, trying to steady himself and not get nauseous at the same time. He picked back up the phone from where he had dropped it and took in another deep breath. " I'm…all right," he reassured her. " I'm perfectly…fine."

The voice on the other side of the line was not convinced. { " What happened?!" she demanded. " Are you hurt?!" }

" Please Anzu, I'm fine," he repeated. " It's just so silent in this house lately. I wasn't really expecting my cat to knock over something. Tien's usually well behaved."

{ " That's all it was?" she asked. " Tien just knocked over and startled you?" }

Ryou nodded out of habit, " Yes, that's all. Now I better go and see what he broke so I can clean it up."

The brunette on the phone gave a small sigh of relief. { " You had me scared to death for a minute there," she seemed rather shaken. " Don't you EVER do that to me again, Bukaru Ryou!" }

" I won't," he replied. " Now I really need to go. But you remember what we talk about, right?"

{ "Of course," she agreed. " Ja ne, Ryou." }

" Ja ne," he repeated before hanging up the phone. He let out a deep sigh and leaned back onto his bed. His heart was still beating a little faster than normal and he could feel the first tremors of a massive migraine. He also felt drained, tired. He just wanted to crawl under his blankets and fall asleep.

What he didn't expect was the sound a deep thunder booming from the opposite side of his window and catching him off guard. He jumped and looked out noticed the dark clouds and flashes of lightning. _But how?_ He wondered. _It was just sunny outside._ He felt a warmth flow over him, but didn't really think of where it could have come from. His fatigue returned full force and he lowered himself to the bed, quickly succumbing to a dreamless rest. He never noticed the faint glow emitting from the golden trinket dangling from his neck.

*****

Shin walked down the hall with brisk movements. They'd left Bakura alone with his mother to grieve for twenty minutes, unsure if that would be ample time for the white-haired boy to calm down. He'd hoped it would allow him to come to terms with it, but he also knew that such things took time to heal. _Oh the poor boy,_ he thought. Now he had no one left. Child Services would have to be called, even though Bakura was almost seventeen he would not be allowed to live on his own.

He stopped at the door that still had the name _Kytsune_ written on it. He slowly pushed open the door and looked inside. " Bakura?" he called out. He gazed about but didn't see anyone. He eyes finally landed on the sight of the IV drips on the floor and the bed against the wall, Mrs. Kytsune's body still lying on it, but not as she was left. It was obvious that Bakura had gone into a rage.

" Bakura," he called out again. Thunder was his only answer. A cold wind caught his attention and he looked over to the window. He stared in shock at the sight of the few shards shattered glass that lay inside on the floor and large gap now taking the glass' place. He knew he had to call someone about the broken window, but his mind was more towards the boy that had once been in the room. Bakura was gone.

*****

He stared out at the storm, marveling in its beauty. " Oh yes, the enchantment of the surreal," he murmured. " They're all going to realize the truth about themselves soon. And then they'll have nowhere to go except to me. And my little Jou-pup, you're just speeding it along."

There was a knock on the door to his office. " Enter Croquet," he called out.

The door opened and the rather broad form of his personal servant and bodyguard stepped into the room. " Your guests have arrived, Master Pegasus," he told him.

" Oh I knew that," he shrugged. " Send them in."

" As you wish sir," he pushed open the door farther and motioned the two figures behind him inside. The two tall forms entered the room, the air about barely moving as they went.

" Ah yes, welcome boys," the silver-haired man greeted them. " Why don't you take a seat?"

" We prefer to stand," the one stated. The other gave him a light slap on the arm.

" Ignore my partner," he stated. " He prefers that we don't try to mingle with our clients. I believe that getting to know you're clients helps you to better perform whatever assignment you're given."

" Both are sound beliefs, depending on the way you wish to handle your dealings," Pegasus nodded. " But let us get straight to the point."

" Yes, lets," the other gave him a quick smirk, sitting himself gracefully into the leather chair in front of him. " Now you ask for the best in tracking and quite a few others areas. That is why we are here. Our statistics of success are well near 100% and we offer a 50% refund for failure, which if you've checked, has never actually occurred."

" So what may I call you?" Pegasus inquired, raising a silver brow at the elegant man (truly a boy) that sat before him. " Which of you is which I truly do not know." That was a lie, but he was quite intrigued by these two.

" Panther," he replied, green eyes smirking as he twirled a raven lock around one of his long and manicured fingers. " He is Hawk." He motioned the tall, muscular brunette that stood behind him. While Panther was tall, lithe, and looked quite feminine, Hawk was tall, broad, and very male with his spiked locks the color of a hawk's feathers. But he could tell that their difference made one no less dangerous than the other. And even though their ages would leave others questionable he thought it to be a commodity. Another reason why he had chose these two besides the known efficiency of their work.

" Who's the target and what are the restrictions?" hazel eyes showed no use for dancing around the subject.

" Here," Pegasus lifted a manila-colored folder off of his desk and handed it to panther. " All of the information is right there. And I trust that the utmost precision will be taken. He is very precious to me and I want him back alive."

" We ALWAYS use the utmost precision," Panther gave a small wink. " But don't worry, we'll keep him as intact as possible. Although a few hairs on his head could be out of place."

" Acceptable," he agreed. " Believe me, complete this and I'll provide an extra bonus at the end besides the final pay."

" Well," Panther seemed very pleased. " I guess we better put this as our top priority." He stood and gave one last smile to Pegasus. " I bet we'll enjoy working together." With that he placed a hand on his partner's shoulder. They both walked to the door and exited the room.

" Oh I think we will indeed," Pegasus gave one smirk of his own. " Indeed."

*****

" Why do you have to act like that?" Hawk frowned as they exited the building through a back garage.

" Because it always works to our advantage," Panther replied with a smirk. " Don't worry, he's way too old for me." He then ran a hand down the brunette's cheek. " Is that what you're worried about?"

" No, I don't like him," Hawk reasoned. " There's something up with him. The only reason why I agreed to this is because he's coughing out quite a bit to make sure it gets done."

Panther lifted a picture out of the envelope and looked at it. " I can tell why," he licked his lips. " This one's a real sexy one. We usually don't get targets that are this good-looking."

" Don't get any ideas," Hawk warned as they reached their two-seater motorcycle. " Seduction isn't part of this job."

" Oh don't worry," he assured him. Hawk climbed onto the bike and Panther slid on right behind him after placing the envelope in a saddlebag. " I've got everything I want right _here_." He ran a hand down the brunette's chest to land right at the juncture between his thighs.

" Not while on the bike, Otogi," Hawk warned as he revved up the machine. " At least not in the middle of a storm anyway."

The raven-haired teen pouted slightly before he smirked. " Then we better get back to the hotel," he purred into the other's ear. " I wouldn't want us to get into an accident, eh Honda?" He licked the outside of his partner's ear.

" Why do you get like this every time we get a new job?" the brunette questioned him. " It doesn't turn you on that much, does it?"

" Well just wait and see," he whispered. The panther smirked at his prey as the other boy pulled the bike out of the garage and they sped down the street into the storm with thunder and lightning flashing around them. 

****

A/N: See? We were really mean to Bakura.

JC: And you loved it.

Kathrine: Well, I had to drive him insane somehow.

JC: The part with Shin the male nurse was very last minute.

Kathrine: I thought it would add a bitter touch to it.

JC: So please tell us what ya think.

Kathrine: We'll try to update more stories by the end of the week.

JC: Ja!


	9. Chapter 9 Numb to the Pain

**JC: WE BEG FOREGIVENESS!!!!!**

**Kathrine: Well****_she_**** begs for it. I apologize though. We planned to have this out before last Sunday, but the ending was deleted, which REALLY pissed us off.**

**JC: So we had to rewrite it, work on two reports, go to Indiana for our cousin's wedding, and help my sister take care of our new niece, Nataliah.**

**Kathrine: So we didn't have time until today to finish it up.**

**JC: And to show how much we appreciate your patience', we fixed up a little treat at the end and tried to make it lengthy enough for ya.**

**Kathrine: And anyone who wants Bakura-angst is sure about to get it in this chapter.**

**JC: Yeswe love to see what we can do to lead up to his insanity. ^_^**

**Kathrine: So without further running aroundCHAPTER 9!!!**

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**Disclaimer: If we owned this do you think that they all would wear practically the same outfit season? We meanWe KNOW ****_SOME_**** of them have to other clothing!**

**Warnings: Yaoi/Shounen Ai, Dark themes, MAJR ANGST, Bakura-history, and mysterious guy. Oh and CLIFFIE ALERT!! We weren't to kind to Rashid either. Kathrine REALLY got her way with this one.**

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**_From within the Flames_**

**By Kathrine and JC**

**Chapter 9 – Numb to the Pain**

He wandered the rainy streets, his eyes glazed with a blank stare as he stumbled about like a drunken idiot. He had come close to bumping into other people many times, but managed to use a strange graceful agility to dodge everyone. More than once a man or woman would turn and sneer at him. He ignored them, his mind somewhere else. He couldn't actually figure out where' his mind had gone, but he still was able to use the majority of his motor skills.

_What's wrong with me?_ his wondered in a detached curiosity. _Why do I feel so strange?_ It was as if he was caged and free at the same time. His body felt fatigued and energized. The rain had already soaked through his clothes, but it was invigorating, almost rejuvenating. The strong winds swirled about him, so much so that one would believe it was purposely playing with his hair as a way to remove his dark mood. His eyes were dry and yet still red, though he could not recall shedding one tear.

He took a turn and found himself in an alley in a part of the city he couldn't remember. Although he knew that if he could conjured up enough of his mentality he probably would know exactly what street he was on and how far it was from his house. _Home_ his mind whispered. Was that where he was going? But what would be there waiting for him?

_Mother is there,_ he told himself. _She's probably waiting for me, wondering when I will be back. Knowing her, she's probably worried sick about me, calling everyone she knows for my whereabouts._ He almost laughed at that. His father had never been so over protective, he wanted him to learn instead of merely setting rules and hoping he'd never break them. He trusted him enough that he believed he would know when to ask for help if he so needed it.

He looked down at his watch, staring curiously at the time, for he wasn't sure if it was correct or not. 6:30. But was that AM or PM? If it was day his mother would be more than worried and he would have to get home. He needed a good bath before school. If it was night he knew it was time for him to go and meet up with Marik and Malik. They would be heading out to the _Dark Room_, a discreet club on the worse off side of town that catered more towards the abnormal', as they did every Sunday night. Was it even Sunday' anymore? How long had it been since he actually paid attention to the time or day? All that seemed constant now to him was the storm that was coming down, the cold rain that was warm against his skin.

His hand touched something cold and smooth. He lifted his eyes towards it and realized that it was a telephone booth. He tilted his head at it, his mind blank for a moment or more. Should he call? He always used to call before he went home. His mother would know to expect him. But he hadn't done so in so long. Maybe she would feel better if he did. His mother had been getting sick so often lately, she was always so tired and weak.

But why should he? She didn't need to know. She should understand that he was strong enough to take care of himself without her worrying over him like he was a babe. He didn't need to call her. She would be happy just with him coming home. _Marik, Malik_ he knew who he needed to contact. He had to make sure that they were ready to go out tonight, or else he would just simply return home.

He slid into the booth, not even shutting the door fully behind himself and picked up the receiver. He didn't even realize he had pulled any change from his pocket until he was shoving coins into the designated slot. His body leaned lazily against the glass wall of the booth as he dialed whichever number his fingers chose. He could hear the ring and put the phone against his ear, routinely waiting for someone to answer.

{ " **You reached the Ishizu residenceI, Marik, am trying to rule the world with my pet, Malik, and attack dog, Bakura. If you wish to live, swear your allegiance to me at the sound of the bee- Rashid! It was just a joke!" *BEEP* **}

" Are you ready? I don't think I'm going out," he whispered into the phone. " I'm not sure where I am. My headMother is probably worriedWhat time is it? Is it time to go home? I don't know" He didn't even bother to hang up the phone, instead leaving it dangling from its cord to cling against the wall of the stall. He exited the booth, feeling more at home in the chaotic storm as he trudged down the street. He had to find his way home. His mother would actually be happy about that.

*****

He walked down the well-lit hall, familiarizing himself with the building that had just been shown to him. Jounouchi was very impressed with what he saw there. It was obvious that Kaiba had planned this for a long time and he was too determined to let anything screw it up. The blonde only hoped that he and the brunette could come to enough of a neutral zone that they could actually work together on this instead of killing each other or worse beforehand.

Yami seemed determined as well, he was quite smart and a great hacker once you set a computer in front of him, but he said he got the talent from his expert computer operator mother. Though the woman and her scientist husband were dead, Yami said he had learned about computers, software and tracking anything possible on the computer since he was young. It was easy to tell why Seto had agreed to work with him, despite his previous explanations. 

They both were very good at this field, and yet Yami was also able to perform more quiet' investigations without causing suspicions where Kaiba would be quickly accused. Even so, there sure as hell wasn't any love loss between them, but a great magnitude of the opposite. The two hated each other, but were great allies when they reluctantly' put aside their differences. It could be that they reminder each other of themselves in some ways, because Jounouchi did think they thought in similar fashions, only acted on their belief somewhat differently.

_Unless you bring up this,_ he thought. _But who wouldn't want to make the ones who ruined their lives suffer?_ He knew that he himself wanted that very same thing. He'd do anything to make them pay. Hence the reason why he was where he was now. But it was more than that. He didn't want to run anymore. He was tired of being chased around like some poor mouse that had broken out of its cage, scientists at every turn trying to return it so they could finish they research. He wanted to finally be free, to put his past and scars behind him so he could live a normal life. _Then there's also the fact that the bipolar walkin', talkin' moneybags blackmailed me._

" Mutt," he stopped in his tracks and growled inwardly at the seemingly permanent nickname.

" What is it?" he turned to glare into icy depths. " Can't you even say my name right? What is your problem?"

Kaiba only stared at him, his expression belying nothing of what he felt, " I prefer to call animals by their species instead of titles."

Jounouchi clenched his jaw, trying his hardest not to lose his temper. He knew it wouldn't be a good idea if he did. Most of the time he wasn't as upset about something as he made out to be, but it did work well to making people think he was rather simple or just idiotic. Every time he had actually become enraged by someone the person would either not live out the next few minutes or was seriously injured. There was only one person alive so far that had come out unscathed. And right now, realizing his anger seemed very benefiting. 

" Don't even think about it," Kaiba pulled him from his thoughts. " This entire building is fireproof and Arin would hose you down with fire extinguishers faster than you could light up your palm."

Jou's eyes widened slightly. " What, are you psychic too?"

" No," Kaiba replied. " You're just transparent. You get upset too easily and, for lack of any other vulgar pun, blow up'."

" That's only because you're an arrogant, money-grubbin' bastard that can't let one word out of his mouth that isn't an insult," the blonde growled. " I'm glad there's no little kids around cause you'd be a horrible role model."

A dark look settled over the brunette's face at those words. " I'd advise you to choose your words more carefully," he warned him. " Loose tongues tend to get loudmouths into trouble."

" Ooh," Jou waved his fingers in the air ominously'. " Did I get you angry? I'm so scared. Mister Ice-pick Kaiba is angry with me."

Before the younger teen knew it he felt an extreme chill. His looked down and noticed that his feet were slowly turning to ice. " Hey!" he exclaimed. Instinctively, he allowed the flame within himself to change, growing so that it would melt the ice quickly. What he didn't expect was an alarm to go off when he did it. And that was when foam shot out from two large canisters that appeared form within the walls, covering his entire body in the white substance save his wide confused eyes.

" I warned you," Kaiba smirked, " But like any other puppy you have to learn the hard way."

" Why you?!" Jounouchi shook off as much of the wet foam as he could. " I ought ta!"

" You are to take my private limousine and return to my estate," Kaiba ordered him. " The butler Daiku will lead you to your room as I have directed and you will remain there for the rest of the day."

" Where are you going?" the blonde asked, his tone still angry.

" I'm going to school," he stated. " I will be back by noon and you better keep your hands off any and everything outside of your room."

" So is Yami leavin' with ya?" he wondered.

"He left fifteen minutes ago," Kaiba stated. " But he will be back tomorrow night, as will we."

" Fine," he agreed reluctantly as he finished wiping off as much of the chilly foam as he could. " But ya know you could at least TRY to be nice to me, I haven't even done anything to ya."

He didn't even bat an eyelash, " I didn't take control of Gozuborou's company by being nice', nor did I bring it to such power that way either."

Jounouchi sighed in defeat. " I give up, you can be as big an asshole as ya want Moneybags."

A graceful brow raised in distaste, " What did you call me?"

" Moneybags?" Jou repeated before smirking. " Hey, you keep callin' me all those stupid dog names and I'll give ya a few, too. That way we're even."

" Whatever," he frowned before turning away. " _Make Inu_."

Jou had to keep himself from growling. He _really_ hated being called a stupid dog'. He had more than enough dog-nicknames to last him a lifetime. But he steeled himself, ignoring the bait. Kaiba looked back at him and raised an eyebrow at his restraint. " Come boy."

" Why ya little-" The blonde was so close to attempt to see how fast ice melted under extreme heat. _It's like he WANTS me to stay pissed at him!_ Jou thought sourly. _What the hell is wrong with him?!_

Kaiba smirked when he realized the blonde was indeed following behind him. _Quite interesting,_ he thought. _This just might be entertaining then I first believed._

*****

" But I don't want to go!" he whined. " I want to stay here with Marik!"

" No," Rashid was no where near changing his mind. " You must go, and Marik needs to rest. You will only miss your finals."

" Yeah," his blonde boyfriend agreed from his somewhat comfortable spot over many pillows on his lover's couch. " You can come home and tell me what will be on the tests. I'll have a better chance of passing next time."

Malik gave a small chuckle at that. " Please," he remarked, " everybody knows that they say' they're giving a different make up tests, but they're really just the original in different order."

Marik winced at the pain that laced through his body, trailing down his spine only to settle at the small of his back. Rashid kneeled next to him, his hand gently gliding over the bandages that were left uncovered. Marik merely wore a pair of low-riding jeans. Malik wanted to lick his lips at how arousing it was. " You don't know how sexy you look," the blonde wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. " Just laying there, back bandaged, writhing in pain, totally vulnerable, and your pants-"

" Go to school Malik," Rashid cut in. " You may speak with him later on once I have transferred him to your room instead of the couch."

" So that means I'll have a gift' specially wrapped in my bed when I get home?!" pale lavender eyes went wide with glee. " Oh Goody, I love presents."

Marik snorted before wincing again. " I'm in pain and you're drooling over how I'll look in your bed?"

" Well" Suddenly the phone rang and they turned to it. Malik almost seemed to pout at being interrupted, but picked it up off of its base anyway. " Ishtar residence, Malik speaking, and may I ask why you're calling at near seven in the morning?"

{ " I apologize for calling this early, but we were told to wait until morning and I didn't wish to wait any longer," a familiar voice told him. " This is Aoshi Medical Center." }

" Aoshi Medical?" the blonde repeated, his mind catching the name instantly. " Hey, is this Shin? Bakura's mothers usual nurse? What would you be calling here for?" But as soon as he finished his questioning dark thoughts invaded his mind.

{ The voice seemed resigned, " Gomen nasai, I didn't want to be the bearer of such harsh news, but I knew you never liked her doctor Mitsuro so I thought it best to call you and ask your sister Isis to come down to the hospital." }

The blonde's eyes widened, "WellIsis is on a business trip to Egypt right now."

{ " That is quite unfortunate," the male nurse sighed. " You're family was the only other contact that was put down and it seems the Ishizu Family is not answering their phone." }

" But Rashid's right here!" Malik exclaimed before looking up at the raven-haired man. " Take the phone, it's about Bakura's mom!"

Confusion reflected in deep blue eyes, but he took the phone and put it against his ear anyway. " Yes, this is Ishizu Rashid," he spoke. It was obvious that the other person was speaking. " No, he is not hereYes, I am willingI will be by later this dayI understandThank you for calling us Yes, Saoonara." He then hung up the phone.

" Well, what happened? Is Shinzoo okay?" Marik asked, shifting his body so that his was more on his side.

" She is dead," Rashid stated. " She died yesterday afternoon, but the Hospital followed protocol and waited until today to contact you after no one would answer the phone at our home."

" Oh Gods, what about Bakura?" Malik thought. " What is he going to do now that Shinzoo is gone?"

" Bakura is missing," the raven-haired man replied. " He disappeared from the hospital. They had hoped that he would come here. I believe he might have gone home."

" Nani?!" both blonde's eyes were wide.

" H-hewould have called," Marik reasoned. " He would have called one of us!"

" He might have called your house," Malik realized, " but you were there beyond early afternoon."

" I'll check our phone messages," Rashid told them as he began dialing there number. He put in the code and waited.

{ **" You have one message."** }

_Damnit,_ the first thought that came mind for him. He pushed play and waited.

{ "** 6:39 AM. You reached the Ishizu residenceI, Marik, am trying to rule the world with my pet, Malik, and attack dog, Bakura. If you wish to live, swear your allegiance to me at the sound of the bee- Rashid! It was just a joke!" *BEEP* **}

He waited and then heard the soft, dazed-sounding voice of the one person he'd hoped to hear from. 

{ _" Are you ready? I don't think I'm going out,"_ his voice was quiet and more than likely whispered. "_ I'm not sure where I am. My headMother is probably worriedWhat time is it? Is it time to go home? I don't know"_ }

The message seemed silent then, save the sound of a light click. Thirty seconds later, he heard the message cut off. He hung up the phone and wondered what he was supposed to do. Bakura said he was going home. The white-haired boy had sounded so dazed and out-of-it that he would have believed that the boy was drunk or under some other form of intoxication if he didn't know that teen abhorred drugs.

_He said something about his head,_ he thought. _Could he have gotten hurt when he jumped out of the second story window like Shin said? Oh Bakurabe all right._

" Rashid! Did he call?!" Malik was getting frantic, much like the night before. The pale blonde didn't know how to do with stressful situations. Most of the time he seemed somewhat insane (definitely not as much as his own brother), but when something went wrong or someone he cared for was hurt in anyway he tended to become hysterical. Usually this was followed or preceded by an eerie calm settling within him, yet he hadn't seen anything of that sort happen. All though he was quite sure the boy was still upset from last night and had yet to get one second of rest.

" I have to go, watch over Marik," he told him.

" What's going on?" Marik turned his head to stare him in the eyes, but couldn't for the pain that stabbed him so ruthlessly.

" I'm going to get Bakura," he said. " I know where he has gone."

" But what about Child Services?" Malik inquired with concern. " They're going to try and send him to Foster Care of some shit!"

" No, it has already been decided that Isis and I will have joint custody of Kytsune Bakura," he told them. " Isis insisted, just in case'."

" She knew this would happen," Marik growled. " She knew that his mom would die, she always know things like this. And yet she let him keep believing, even when he didn't want to."

" It is not her place to interfere," Rashid countered. " You know that very well. Things must follow their course. Now I must go." He walked to the closet and pick up his coat from where he had set it during the night. He didn't even bother to grab an umbrella and opened the door, stepping out into the storm that had been raging since the afternoon before. he shut the door behind him and took off down the block, he had at least fifteen minutes to get to Bakura's. _I only hope that he is still there, it is 7:12. I don't know where he could have been when he got the phone call. He might not even be there yet._

Malik watched the door with a sigh. " I better get you some more Advil," he told Marik. " I can tell the pain is getting worse." Yes he could tell, not just because Marik was wincing more often. It was like a sense of concern and warning that was picking at him from the back of his sense. It hurt far more than his identical lover was willing to admit. 

_Be okay Bakura,_ he thought as he went to the kitchen to fill a glass of water. " Hey!" he realized. " At least I got out of going to school!"

*****

He stood in the dim light of the candles, staring at the carvings upon the walls. Each one told the tale that not many even knew had been spun, even fewer would understand their significance in this day and Age. He was the Guardian, sent to protect this story, meant to keep the order of all things done in the past and present pertaining to it. 

" It is not yet time," he whispered. " My part is not yet ready."

He looked down to stare at the palm of his left hand and could clearly see the scar that drew from the bottom of his index finger and diagonally to the edge of his palm. He knew that something was going to happen, something that had been withheld from him. _And yet the paths are not meant to be turned, the future not meant to be tampered with,_ he reminded himself.

" But I made an oatha promise," he whispered to the room, as if the carvings could hear him. " One that I know I cannot denounce. I will not."

The candles flickered, and a gust of wind entered the room. He smiled. " Thank you," he murmured. His blue eyes, no pupils within, held the one carving, a man with long hair and a staff in his hand. " Thank you." The candles flickered once more and it seemed the room was drenched in darkness. When they returned to their normal effulgence, the man was gone.

*****

He stood in front of the door, taking in the darkness of the building. The porch protected him from the storm, yet he almost wished he could feel it, could feel anything. He was so numb, his mind blank and his body frozen, but not from the cold. He didn't know why he felt this way. He had been fine yesterday, hadn't he? Why did he feel so disrupted and out of sync now? It was strange, like something was blocking all that he felt, a knot cutting of his soul like a clogged artery to the heart.

He thought absently,_ It doesn't matter._ He pulled the key from his pocket, easily slipping it into the familiar lock. He turned it and opened the door at the same time, entering his home that he had lived in since his birth. _Mother probably fell asleep by the fireplace again, waiting for me._ She always did that, waiting up for him when he came home too late, but falling asleep before hand if he return after two. And then she would awake instantly, rushing to him smiling and give him a hug, almost as if she thought he actually _wouldn't_ come home. But as always, he would shrug her off and go to his room, not even acknowledging her concern and telling her hello'.

But he heard nothing. No movement, no yawn from the room right off of the foyer that usually accompanied his shutting of the door when he returned. No _Bakura!_' gasped in delight and worry. It was wrong, it was completely wrong. She would have gotten up if she hadn't been awake already. Why did this seem so wrong?

He asked himself, _Why do I care?_ _I've been telling her to quit waiting for me, to stop treating me like a child._ He took off his coat, dropping it to the floor, and shook his hair, water flying in every direction possible. He didn't bother to pick it up and walked past the doorway, not even bothering to look in. But he noticed something. The fireplace wasn't going.

His mother always had the fireplace going if he left, even though it could be the middle of the summer with the air-conditioning on. She had done so every since his father had not come home that one day in the middle of the winter, the day he had died. He had promised her he would come home and they would get to spend time as a family, something he had been too busy to do for over a month. He was going to ask for his two-week vacation. _" Just keep the fireplace warmed up and I'll be home before you know it,"_ he had told her. 

And yet he had never come. She and Bakura had been watching television, waiting for him, when the news bulletin came on about the bank robbery and hostage situation. They had waited, praying that he had not been at the scene that he would come through the door at any moment. But he never returned. It had been just when the news had reported the death of a police officer when the fire had been about to die, but she put more wood on it, and did so until they had received the phone call that had almost ruined their lives. And then Bakura himself had began to leave, not coming home until all hours of the night, only to find the fireplace going whenever he did.

But now it was not. _She could just have been too tired to keep it going,_ he told himself. His mother had become increasingly weaker lately, unable to do most of the work she prided herself on, especially her garden. He had taken to doing it for her, when she was sleeping, and telling her that her friend Mrs. Aoito had been watching over it for her instead. She sounded convinced when he spoke to her, but he knew that she wasn't stupid, and as of yet had spoken nothing of it.

Curiosity got the better of him. Why wasn't the fireplace going? Had she become too ill? Should he call the hospital again and schedule and earlier appointment for her? He took two steps back and entered the room turning towards the far corner as he flicked the light switch. The fireplace was bare. Nothing was in it, not ashes, not wood, it looked clean and untouched save he darkened hearth from years of use.

" Mother?" he called out, confused. He turned to the chair that sat back the fireplace. It was a reclining rocking chair that his father had bought to replicate the original her grandmother had when she had been a child. Of course, he had chosen one that looked almost identical, but with more to it to provide comfort. She always used it. She loved the chair, always in it doing something, knitting, painting, anything she could do sitting down. She always slept in it when she was waiting up for him.

" Mother, wake up," he told her as he crossed the room. Why wasn't she answering him? She was a light sleeper, and the tone and rising volume of voice would have woken her immediately. What was wrong with her?

Getting irritated, he took three heavy steps and grabbed the back of the chair, turning it towards him. " Mother! Get u-!" he shouted, but the final word caught in his throat. It was empty. The chair rocked lightly, but no one was in it. " Wha-?" Suddenly images came to mind. 

**_/ " Oh Kura" she murmured/_**

**_/ " Ai shiteruI love you very muchEven though I know that youthink me weakI still love you" /_**

_What are you talking about? What's going on?_ he thought._ Why am I seeing these things? They're not real!_

**_/ " You are my sonand the son of your fatherKytsune KageNever forget that/_**

"Why are you saying this?!" He cried out to the room. " What are you saying?!"

**_/ " We need! We're losing her!" /_**

**_/ " CPR!" /_**

**_/ " We can't!" /_**

**_/ "Call it." /_**

**_/ Blank eyes staring at him, not seeing No breathno life No, No, NO! " GET UP!"_**

Suddenly everything settled in his mind. It was as if the storm within himself was gone, everything as numb as his soul. _No,_ he told himself. _She's not deadshe's just sleepingshe'd not dead_ It was almost as if he was awaking from a self-induced dream, finding out a truth that he never wanted to know. It didn't make sense. _SHE'S NOT DEAD!_

" Bakura," he spun at the calm sound of the familiar voice.

" Rashid" he stated before looking back at the chair. " She's not here. She's always here in this chairwaiting for me."

" I know," the dark-skinned man nodded. " Bakura, I came to take you back with me to Malik's house. He and Marik are waiting for you."

" No," Bakura shook his head. " No, no, noI have to find her. I have to wake her up. She's always awake in the morning. I have to get her up."

" Bakura," Rashid started again. " Everything is going to be all right"

" NO!" the white-haired teen shouted, and suddenly a heavy wind entered the room. " I have to find her!"

Rashid's eyes widened at the sight of the younger boy. His hair was standing on it and seemed to be a pale, more pure shade of white. His eyes were wide and he knew he could see the brown irises fading as the whites grew. The light from the ceiling lamp brightened as the wind increased, its white illumination beginning to hurt his sight. Suddenly it seemed to flicker before it exploded, the lamp bursting and glass shattering all around the room.

" Bakura!" He shielded his eyes and face as the glass flew everywhere, some digging into his arms. The room was shrouded in darkness once again. He slowly opened his eyes once he thought it was over. The room was dim and dark, save the faint glow emanating from the figure standing on the other side of the room. There was glass in the teen's hair and cuts on his cheek and bare arm that was closer to where the lamp had been, but nothing was wrong. And yet he glowed, a pale light shining from him that Rashid had never seen before.

" Baku-" his words were cut short by the pain that laced through his back. He watched as something exited his body and hit the wall opposite him. Looking down, he saw the dark spot growing on his brown shirt from his open coat. A quiet release of air sounded in the previously silent room. He looked up and watched as Bakura fell to the side, landing in his mother's favorite chair, before Rashid himself fell to his knees.

" Wh-What? B-Bak-kura" his words choked in his throat.

" Say goodnight," someone gave a chuckle and darkness clouded his mind from the hit to the back of his head.

**Kathrine: And now for the treat! We hope you like it!**

**_Numb_**

**By Kathrine**

****

Rain pours down my face

Yet it feels like nothing

Mind wandering in a void so blank

Yet I feel completely nothing

Anger rises in my soul

Yet it comes out as nothing

Return to the beginning is my goal

Yet I've reached _absolutely_ nothing

Where are you? Can you feel what I cannot?

Can I see you? Can you undo this internal knot?

It's holding back my feelings, Blocking out everything.

I need to feel myselfSomething, pain, _anything._

I'm so Numb! Shock denies my feelings.

They're so dumb. Anyone could see I'm not dealing.

I'm void and Numb. My body drenched yet I don't know.

I can't even decide, Where else I have to go.

It's like a dream

I'll go in and she is there

I'll ignore her smile

Don't acknowledge that she cares

Yet every dream ends

And I see the fireplace is bare

Then I realize

No more will she sit in her chair

Where are you? Don't you know I'm trying to find you?

Can I see you? Not blank eyes seeing without you?

I'm holding back my feelings, Not ready to let go.

It's too much for me now, To accept the truth I already know.

I'm so Numb! Shock grasping my feelings.

They're so dumb. Anyone could feel my soul reeling.

I'm frozen Numb. My body empty yet I don't know.

I can't even decide, If I can ever go.

I'm SO Numb! My body cold like the rain.

I'm just Numb, Heart not ready to feel the pain.

I'm so dumb, Didn't think enough to care.

But now I'm Numb

Unsure how to feel without her there.

**JC: Okay that was your gift, a song depicting how Bakura feels through all of this.**

**Kathrine: I love a gorgeous guy in pain. And Bakura's just so fun to mess with, almost a fun a Jounouchi.**

**JC: So we hope you're not mad at us anymore. Wellexcept about the cliffhanger.**

**Kathrine: We'll definitely work on the next chapter as soon as we can.**

**JC: And I bet you all already know who the Mystery' guy is. But do you know WHY he's acting the way he is?**

**Kathrine: You won't find that out until later, but he will definitely be in the next chapter. Hehehehee**

**JC: Okay, so review and tell us what you think. You're comments and ideas will help us get the next chapter out MUCH faster. Ja! ^_^**


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